Phantom and Feline original
by Iris Musicia
Summary: Kurt goes crazy with grief of his mother's death and Kitty tries to stop him before he does something rash- but it's too late. Kurt is killed, but he's far from gone, still haunting the mansion, and Kitty's heart.  Can love bring him back to life? Kurtty.
1. Fur

**Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men (and I hate having to type that every single time I write a new chapter on a fanfiction).**

**Fur**

Kurt Wagner, a seventeen-year-old boy at the Xavier Institute, was lounging on one of the couches in the rec. room, staring up at the ceiling at the poster that his friend Evan had put there of his favorite band. This would have been a normal scene, had it not been for Kurt.

Kurt was a mutant with a very extreme physical mutation and a very interesting ability. Kurt had short, velvety, dark blue fur covering his whole body; a three and a half foot long prehensile, barbed tail; almost dog-like legs; three fingers on each hand; two toes on each foot; pure gold eyes with white pupils; pointed ears; and fangs. He had the power to teleport, or disappear one place and reappear in another. When he was younger, living in Germany, where many people were quite religious, they had thought him a demon, a spy of the Devil, and a curse, like a plague.

Despite his shocking appearance, Kurt was the lightest and happiest person at the Institute, where Charles Xavier, a powerful telepath, had welcomed them all with open arms and taught them to control and understand their powers. Kurt was the prankster and the joker, always smiling, and always laughing at a prank he had just pulled or a joke he had just told.

Today, however, he was in a mood. As he lay, glaring murderously at the poster on the ceiling, Kitty Pryde walked into the room. At first she didn't see him, but then she spotted the telltale blue tail hanging over the arm of the couch, tip twitching agitatedly.

"Hey Kurt," Kitty said, walking over to hang over the back of the couch. "Wanna go into town and, like, do something?"

Kurt didn't take his eyes off the poster as he answered.

"No."

"Why? What's, like, wrong; other than that poster?" Kitty followed Kurt's eyes.

"Zere's nozing vrong wiz ze poster." Kurt said almost sharply.

"Then why are you, like, so angry?" Kitty pressed. It was very unlike Kurt to be so sullen and moody.

"I'm not angry. I'm zinking." Kurt replied, closing his eyes.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Zings,"

"What sort of things?"

"Difficult zings,"

"Tell me."

"_Nein_. I don't need to burden you viz my problems."

"I want to be burdened. It'll give me something to do."

"Fine."

"Tell me anything."

"I got a letter from my brozzer a few days ago . . ." Kurt started, opening his eyes and looking at the poster again.

"What was it about?" Kitty asked sympathetically.

"Back home, zings are going badly . . . my seester, Jimaine, lost her job,"

"That's too bad,"

"But zat's not all. My brozzer, Stefan, vas convicted for ze murder of a girl. He didn't kill her! He never vould do anyzing like zat!" Kurt said, talking more to himself now.

"Wow. That's really awful," Kitty said, her eyes wandering to other things, like Evan standing in the doorway. She ignored him for now.

"Ze worst zing iz . . ." Kurt trailed off. He closed his eyes again and tears fell from the corners into his fur.

"Go on. It'll feel better once you, like, tell someone." Kitty prompted.

"My mozzer vas killed in a riot." Kurt choked, taking a shuddering breath. "Ze people found out she vas a sorceress und zey vent into her tent und brought her out into ze town sqvare . . ."

"Keep going. It's the only way." Kitty pushed.

"Und zey beat her vile zey made Stefan und Jimaine vatch. Ven she vas almost dead, Stefan says zat zey burned her at ze stake. Stefan said zat zey were demanding she tell zem vere I vas, so zey could kill me, ze demon . . . but she vouldn't tell zem, so zey burned her. And zey call _me_ ze monster! Zey are monsters! Venever I vent outside ze Zirkus in Bavaria, zey vould chase me und pull my tail und try to beat me.

"Vonce, a man named Connor caught me und kept me in a cage for days . . . und he vould beat "ze demon" all ze time, trying to kill me, until vone time, Jimaine und Stefan found me. Und jetzt, sie haben meine liebe mutter tod gemacht! Mördern!" Kurt yelled, his accent becoming thicker until he was finally saying in German, 'And now they have killed my mother! Murderers!' and standing up suddenly, his tail lashing with his rage and grief. Evan, standing in the doorway, recoiled slightly at Kurt's harsh cry. Kitty looked genuinely scared.

"That's . . ." Kitty was at a loss for words. Evan backed away down the hall.

"But you'll stand by me, right?" Kurt asked Kitty, his rage fading. He seemed to shrink visibly as he turned to face her, picking his tail up and running his fingers over the flat, arrowhead-shaped barb.

"Definitely, Kurt. You're, like, my best friend. I'd never leave you just because of the way you look," Kitty assured him, still quite scared so she didn't approach him.

"Jimaine und Stefan can't show zeir faces in town again, or even in ze Zirkus because it vas discovered zat Margali, my mozzer, vas a sorceress. Now, zey're ze children of a sorceress. It's like a taboo." Kurt said sadly. "Und I can't do anyzing about it."

"Aw, Kurt," Kitty murmured, coming around the couch to wrap her arms around Kurt's hunched frame. He kept his eyes on his tail.

"I don't know vat to do anymore," Kurt said quietly. "Everyzing's so confusing now, people just can't tolerate us so zey kill us. Sometimes, I vonder vat it vould be like if I vasn't a mutant . . . vould I grow up viz normal parents, hating mutants for freaks, vould I not know, or vould I just tolerate and live viz zem? It seems zat ze only zing in my life zat doesn't change viz every shifting shadow iz you, Kätzchen, and God. Only two zings I can rely on in a vorld of a million . . ."

Kitty squeezed him gently in a comforting way.

"Whaddya say we, like, go gorge ourselves on something we really don't need to eat?" Kitty asked with a smile. Kurt stayed silent for a moment, then replied.

"Okay,"

"Right then!" Kitty pulled him by the hand through the rec. room down the hallways and staircase to the kitchen. Thankfully, no one was there. Kurt sat down in a chair with his chin resting on the table as his eyes followed Kitty around the kitchen, getting ice cream, bowls, and spoons before going to sit down across from him. Just as Kitty was about to make contact with the seat of the chair, there was a loud yelp.

"Hey! Hey! I'm here!" a female voice spoke hurriedly, and a young Korean lady with short, straight black hair materialized in the chair.

"Who are you?" Kitty demanded, straightening up quickly. She glared at the girl.

"I'm Milani, and I just got here today – I'm a new recruit. Who are you?" Milani said, looking from Kitty, angry, to Kurt, mildly surprised. "And what's up with _you_?"

"I'm Kitty Pryde, and this is Kurt Wagner. We've lived here at the Institute for about three years." Kitty said, a harsh edge to her voice. She phased through the table to sit on Kurt's right.

"I'm a mutant, just like you. I happen to look different." Kurt said shortly, keeping his accent to a minimum.

"So what do you guys do?" Milani asked conversationally, but Kurt and Kitty weren't much in the mood to talk. They answered reluctantly out of common courtesy.

"I phase through solid objects." Kitty said, waving her hand through the table a couple of times.

"I teleport." Kurt muttered without emotion. He started on his ice cream as Professor Xavier's voice sounded in each of their heads. Milani jumped, but Kurt and Kitty were unfazed.

_Attention all new recruits: there will be an orientation in the Recreation Room in two minutes with Logan and Scott. Attendance is mandatory if you wish to stay at the Institute. _

"Guess I'd better go now . . . I'll probably get lost and show up ten minutes late if I don't," Milani said with a smile and left the kitchen. Kitty ate her ice cream in silence, watching Kurt cautiously. In her Family Studies class at school, they were studying the grieving process. After the initial shock wears off, someone going through the grieving process can become depressed and suicidal. She really hoped Kurt didn't become suicidal.

Kurt pushed his bowl aside and put his chin back down on the table, eyes unfocused. He was lost in a confusing, stinging haze of emotion, mostly grief, rage, and depression.

"C'mon, Kurt. We're going into town whether you like it or not." Kitty said, pulling Kurt away from the table and up to his room. Kitty scrounged around and found his image inducer, and held it out to him, expecting him to put it on. He stared blankly at it as if he didn't know what it was. Kitty sighed and rolled her eyes, then strapped it onto his wrist and pressed the button.

Kurt's image flickered and there stood a tall boy with pale skin and dark black hair, almost indigo. His face wore the same shell-shocked expression.

"Kurt," Kitty murmured, coming up close to him so they were almost touching. "Kurt, can you say something? Please?"

Kurt blinked and looked down at her and seemed to come to his senses.

"Sorry. I just can't concentrate," he said distractedly.

"Well, you don't need to concentrate to drive Scott's car, do you?" Kitty teased. Kurt smiled sadly.

"I zink I do, but vatever. I'll try anyvays. You, being a leetle girl, can't drive." Kurt teased, a touch of his spirit coming back.

As Kitty and Kurt drove down the driveway in Scott's _borrowed_ red-and-white convertible, Kurt told himself to try to be normal.

_This is hard, Mutti just died. I have to not mope so much. The Professor and Jean will get in my head if I don't at least _act_ like I'm happy._

The day was a nice, rather balmy day in early June. School wasn't out yet, but it would be in three days, and the atmosphere around the Mansion was infectious, Kurt had to admit. It still felt good to have the wind whipping his long hair again, as if to remind him what he would miss if he withdrew into himself.

Once in Bayville, Kurt parked the car in the mall parking lot and hopped out, choosing not to open the door, but swing himself over it as Kitty giggled.

_He's coming back to himself_, Kitty thought. Still, there were subtle differences in his mannerisms. He didn't smile as much, and he didn't talk as much as he normally did, but he acted more like his old self now. _It's great that he's acting like this, but he's probably still really depressed on the inside. You don't get a letter from your brother saying your mother was beaten to death then turn around and be all happy. Maybe if I talked to the Professor, he could help with some of the grief. _

The pair strolled down the sidewalk, nobody taking a second glance at them. Kitty didn't really know where they were going, and she didn't think Kurt did either. They were walking past the loading bay for the supermarket when Kurt's ears picked up a small sound.

"Keety – listen. You hear zat?" he stopped dead and held out his arm, ears pricked. Kitty shook her head. Wait – there it was again. "It's coming from down zere,"

Kitty turned her head to where Kurt was pointing. The loading bay was empty and bright, but Kurt seemed to sense something down there. He started walking towards the Dumpster slowly, stopping every so often.

"What do you hear? It's, like, really bugging me," Kitty said, following Kurt. She was sure that if Kurt's tail hadn't been hidden down one leg of his pants and covered by a hologram, it would be swishing with anticipation. When he reached the Dumpster, he stretched up and looked into it. His eyes widened slightly in shock, and he reached a hand down into it. He pulled it back up and Kitty saw what seemed to be a small, filthy, bedraggled pompom.

"Keety, do you know vat zis iz?" again, Kitty shook her head.

"It looks like a . . ."

"A keeten."


	2. Tail

**Disclaimer: I don't own XME.**

**Tail**

"Oh my god," Kitty came forward to the little pompom of dirty fur. It squeaked weakly and Kitty caught a glimpse of a mouth with tiny, sharp little teeth, pale gums, and a pink tongue. She could make out four little legs, a short tail, and two tiny rounded triangles of ears.

"Its eyes aren't even open yet," Kurt said, transferring the tiny kitten to his other hand. "It must be only a day old."

"We can't just leave it here," Kitty said, her mind churning. "What do we do with it?"

"I say ve take it home," Kurt said, looking out of the loading bay up the Institute, which sat on a hill overlooking downtown Bayville. "I zink I can teleport home."

"But what about Scott's—" Kitty was cut off as Kurt grabbed her wrist and the two disappeared with a muffled _bamf_! Half a second later, the two reappeared with a flash of light, another _bamf_, and the smell of brimstone in the lobby of the Mansion. Kurt switched off his image inducer and let his tail free. Then, he bounded off down the hall toward the medical bay on four legs, with the kitten clutched in his tail. Kitty had no choice but to follow Kurt to the medical bay.

Kurt skidded to a stop outside the glass doors of the medical bay as Hank McCoy, the mutant who acted as doctor, was closing the door behind him.

"Where's the fire?" he asked with a smile.

"Keety and I found zis keeten in a Dumpster – I don't zink it's healzy." Kurt said very quickly, standing up straight and taking the kitten from his tail, which dropped to swish with agitation. Hank took the kitten from Kurt and held it up to his face to look critically at it.

"You're right. It's not healthy. Judging by how small it is and how its eyes aren't open, I'd wager to say it's only a day or two old."

Hank opened the door to the medical bay and walked in, shadowed by Kurt, as Kitty came panting around the corner. She slipped in as the door was closing, apparently unnoticed by the two men.

"I don't think it's good that its gums are, like, pale like that," Kitty breathed as she looked around Kurt at the ball of fur on the exam table.

"You're right. Pale gums indicate poor blood flow and or malnutrition. I'd say both. Let me see . . . you two can clean it up, and I can give it some vitamins. After that, you two will have to clear it with the Professor if you want to keep it here." Hank said, looking up at the two teens, who were still standing quite still, staring at the kitten. "Well, get to work!"

Kitty and Kurt snapped into action. Kurt picked the kitten up gingerly and took it over to the sink, which Kitty was filling with warm water. Kurt put his hand in the water and splashed a little on the kitten, which mewled faintly but didn't protest much. It didn't have the energy to. Kitty took over the kitten, using the advantage of her ten fingers over Kurt's six to wash it by rubbing little circles in its wet fur until the dirt and mud started coming out.

"I have an idea – vait here!" Kurt said suddenly, teleporting away with a puff of acrid black smoke that left Kitty coughing slightly.

"Where do you think I'm going to go?" Kitty muttered sarcastically, still rubbing the little cat. Seconds later, Kurt reappeared, holding a pink bottle. Kitty looked at it.

"Hey! That's my, like, shampoo!" she protested. Kurt ignored her and squeezed some onto his hand and put it on the kitten. Soon, the kitten and the filthy water were covered in suds. Kitty pulled the plug in the sink and let the brown, tepid water drain away before turning the faucet on warm again. She rinsed the soap and remaining dirt out of the kitten's fur.

Kurt went and found a towel to dry the little cat with. He gave it to Kitty and watched carefully as she rubbed the kitten's fur the opposite direction.

"Vy are you doing zat?" Kurt questioned.

"I saw it on animal cops. When you have a wet puppy or kitten, you, like, rub their fur the wrong way so it warms them up and, like, dries them faster." Kitty explained, setting the now clean kitten down on the towel. Hank came back into the medical bay and looked at the clean kitten sitting on the towel.

"Good job, you two. Now I can tell where its mouth is," he said somewhat jokingly. Hank picked up the kitten on the towel and put it back under the light on the exam table. He walked off to go get something and came back with a dropper with thick golden liquid in it. "This is a vitamin mix to help it. If it's as malnourished as I expect, it will have to have three milligrams of this every day until its gums start getting color. Meanwhile, you two go to the Professor and hope he'll let you keep it. I'll find a recipe for cat's milk. I think it's something like cow's milk with honey and baking soda . . ."

Hank walked off with the kitten. Kitty looked at Kurt expectantly. He sighed and held out his arm for her to hold on to. With a _bamf_ and a flash of light, the two appeared in the Professor's study. He looked up from his desk with mild surprise at the arrival.

"Professor, we found a kitten in town today –" Kitty began breathlessly.

"And ve vant to know if you'll let us keep it—" Kurt continued.

"We'd take care of it and it wouldn't get into trouble—"

"It'd stay in Keety's room—"

"So can we please keep it?" Kitty implored. The Professor looked at them over steepled fingers.

"Taking care of a pet, no matter how small, is not an easy task. You two would have to get together some funds to get the necessary supplies for a kitten, and you would also have to keep your word and keep it out of trouble. I'm afraid to say that it would have to be confined to Kitty's room. We can't have a cat wandering the mansion – lord knows what would happen if it managed to get into Cerebro or the Danger Room," he mused.

Kitty and Kurt looked on hopefully as the Professor made up his mind.

"You may keep the kitten."

The two smiled at him and Kitty said,

"You're the best, Professor X!" before Kurt teleported them back to the medical bay. The kitten, wrapped in the towel, was back on the exam table, but appeared to be fast asleep.

"I just fed the kitten. You'll have to give it some of this milk about every hour – even at night. It appears that this kitten is a boy, but I'm not sure what breed it is. Perhaps you'd know, Kitty." Hank said, handing Kitty a bottle of thick, off-white liquid. She put the bottle down out of the way and bent down to get a closer look at the kitten. Kitty spent several minutes looking at the kitten before straightening up and announcing,

"I think it's a Maine Coon. It has, like, an 'M' on its forehead and long hair, which are, like, characteristics of the breed."

"A Maine Coon?" Kurt repeated. He wasn't very familiar with cats.

"Yeah. Maine Coons are one of the biggest breeds of, like, domestic cats. They came from Scandinavia with the Vikings." Kitty said, knowing this because she liked to watch _Cats 101_ on Animal Planet.

"So what did the Professor say?" Hank asked.

"He said ve could keep him," Kurt said. He picked the cat up gently. The kitten yawned and squeaked. Kurt stroked the cat lightly with the tip of his tail, and to everyone's surprise, it opened its eyes and purred. "I like ze name Cyrus. How about you?"

Kitty nodded, and stroked Cyrus's head with one finger.

"Let's, like, take him to my room now," Kitty suggested. Kurt nodded and started walking to the door. "What, no teleporting?"

"I don't vant to . . . _ich weiβ nicht_, kill Cyrus," Kurt retorted sharply, saying, 'I don't want to, oh, I don't know, kill Cyrus.'

Kitty shrugged and followed him. Up two flights of stairs, Kurt pushed open the door to Kitty's room. He looked around and saw the room was pretty neat, with the exception of the bureau, which had makeup scattered over it, and the mirror, which had a message written on it in lipstick.

_Live, love, laugh, and someday, love again from past life._

Kurt couldn't identify the handwriting, and just as he was about to get a closer look, Kitty walked in and ran over to the bureau. She shoved the makeup in one of the drawers, and Kurt caught a glimpse of what had made Kitty so panicked: the little blue box. He turned away and put Cyrus on the bed and watched Kitty finish stashing her makeup and tuck the ends of her bangs behind her ears.

"What? Why are you, like, looking at me like that?" Kitty asked rather sharply, turning to face him and perching on the bureau.

"Nozing," Kurt said distractedly. How had he never noticed so many things about her? The way she tucked her bangs back when she was nervous, or the way she batted her eyelashes at him when she said she was making fun of him, but he knew she was flirting? How she said they were only best friends, but he knew she wanted them to be more?

"And to think you lost your mother," Kitty commented harshly. Kurt's mind tore back to Margali. Depression flooded his head again, like a drug. He frowned at her. Why did she have to bring that up?

"I vas in such a good mood before you said zat," Kurt stated sourly, picking Cyrus up to distract himself. The kitten mewed when Kurt lifted him off the bed, and the boy realized he was being a little rough. He softened his touch and absentmindedly petted him.

"What would you do if I, like, died tomorrow?" Kitty asked suddenly, making Kurt's head snap up.

"Vat? Vy vould you ask such a stupid qvestion as zat?" Kurt demanded.

"I just wanted to know," Kitty tucked her hair back again. Nervous.

"Vell, I vould be sad," Kurt began, frowning and trying to imagine what it would feel like.

"You would only be sad?" Kitty asked coyly, batting her eyelashes. Flirtatious. What was she trying to do? Ruin him with all these emotions?

"I vould be very sad. All ze vomen in my life vould be dying!" Kurt said with a hint of humor, playing into Kitty's hands.

"Really? And what would you do if I decided to do this?" Kitty murmured, crossing the floor between the bureau and the bed quickly. She was so close to him, the tiny space between their bodies practically crackling with the tension. Kurt breathed in her rich, warm scent and put Cyrus down. Kitty looked through her eyelashes at him and placed her fingers, one at a time, carefully on his cheek. Kurt felt helpless, lost in her eyes and scent, nothingness swirling in his mind except Kitty – her wonderful closeness, the temptation, the _desire_ . . . he wanted Kitty to just kiss him already! And then, it was gone. All gone.

"Don't play viz me like zat! It's not fair," Kurt protested weakly. He looked up and Kitty was, once again, perched on the bureau, smiling slightly.

"It's fair enough . . . you're so fun to toy with," Kitty said seductively, daring him to come closer, to advance, to take what he wanted and have fun with it. Kurt shook his head and picked the cat up again. Cyrus had a calming influence on him. Kurt caught the sound of car tires rumbling up the drive and he went to the window. Kitty, all thoughts of messing with Nightcrawler's affections gone, followed and looked over his shoulder at the car.

It was a dull grey-green Jeep. Lance's Jeep. Lance Alvers was another mutant that chose not to join the student body of the Institute in favor of the troupe of mutants Mystique commanded at the run-down Bayville Brotherhood Boarding House. He seemed to like Kitty, and for appearances' sake, Kitty pretended to like him. Lance had often tried to go on a date to the movies with Kitty, but she either refused point-blank or arranged something quickly with Rogue or Kurt. Rogue was Kitty's good friend and used to be her roommate, until a room opened up and Kitty and Rogue were able to have their own rooms.

"I'd better go, like, intercept him before he sees you or Scott," Kitty said quickly, sinking through the floor to the Library, which was beneath her room. From the Library, she would phase through the wall into the lobby to get Lance. Kurt stayed upstairs with Cyrus, who had fallen asleep in his arms. Once Cyrus was tucked up in his towel, Kurt teleported back to his room and went straight to the chandelier to hang upside down, his favorite way to think.

*

Twenty minutes later, after Kitty managed, just barely, to turn Lance away, she phased back up to her room and found Kurt gone, but Cyrus in his towel. Kitty knew Kurt well enough to know that he had gone back to his room. She phased through her door out into the hallway and down to Kurt's room, knocking before entering.

"What's, like, on your mind?" Kitty asked. Stupid question. She knew what was on his mind.

"I don't know if I should go back to Germany to see Jimaine und Stefan. Our mozzer died, and I'm still here, in America. If your mozzer died, vouldn't you go back home to see her buried?" Kurt asked from the chandelier. He let go of the metal and dropped, but right before he hit the ground, teleported and ended up standing in front of Kitty.

"Well, yeah, I guess," Kitty said. Kurt's intense gaze was uncomfortable.

"I need to go see ze Professor und ask him if I could go back to Germany," Kurt said, more to himself as he started walking away, to his mirror.

"Yeah . . . but Fuzzy, how long would you, like, be gone?" Kitty asked. Kurt didn't seem to hear her.

"_I_ caused Margali to die," he said quietly to his reflection, then whirled around and addressed Kitty. "Two veeks, at most."

"Oh, that's, like, a long time," Kitty said.

"Not nearly long enough for vat I'm going for. Kätzchen, do you mind if you give me some space?" Kurt asked. Kitty shook her head and left the room. As soon as the heel of Kitty's sandal had disappeared through the door, Kurt turned back to the mirror.

"Vy do you kill people, Kurt? Do you like killing people? Maybe you don't even know you're doing it . . . or do you?" Kurt asked his reflection. "You're ze reazon Margali died, you know. You killed her. Stefan und Jimaine vould never do anyzing like zat, so vy do you do it? Anyvay, Margali vasn't your real mozzer. She found you wrapped in a blanket floating down ze river. She took you in because she felt sorry for you. _Margali war falsch. Du bist ein hässlicher _Dämon_!_"

Instead of working himself into rage by saying, 'Margali was wrong. You are a horrible _demon_!' Kurt slumped forward and let his head hit the mirror. He was tired of emotions. He didn't want to be depressed, but he was. It rebelled against his nature to be depressed, yet at the same time, when he acted happy, it felt to him as if he didn't care that Margali died for him. There was a gentle knock on the door, but Kurt didn't hear, withdrawn into himself as he slid down the wall to sit with his knees to his chest and tail curled around his feet, eyes staring at nothing.

"Kurt? Are you feeling okay?" It was Evan Daniels, one of Kurt's good friends. Though Evan was talking rather loudly, Kurt didn't hear. He was lost inside himself with no hope of getting out; it was like walking into a pit of tar. One way ticket: in, not out.

"Hey, Kurt!" Evan came over and shook his shoulder. Acting on instinct alone, Kurt jumped up suddenly, baring his fangs and growling like a cornered dog. Evan jumped backwards and held out his hands, as if to stop Kurt from doing something.

"Kurt, Kurt, it's me! You know me! Evan!" Evan's shouts fell only on Kurt's deaf ears. He advanced, growling lowly.

_Kurt, stop!_

Professor X was attempting to reach Kurt telepathically. Kurt turned his head around, looking for where his voice had come from, growling more loudly. The door to Kurt's room opened and Jean ran in and took in the scene.

_Kurt, I'm warning you, back down._

Jean was now trying to talk to him through her mind. Kurt snarled at her.

"You leave me no choice," Jean said sadly. She put her hands to her temples in concentration. A sharp blast of energy narrowly missed Evan, but hit Kurt full-on. He was strong, but not that strong. The boy fell to the floor, eyes rolled back in his head. Jean levitated him out the door and down the hallway. Evan didn't know where she was taking him, but it was either the medical bay or Professor X's study. He went back to his room to clean his skateboard.

Kitty came out of her room as Jean walked past. She saw Kurt being levitated down the hall.

"Jean! What happened?" Kitty shouted. Jean shook her head.

"I'll tell you in a minute." Kitty sighed. Nobody ever said 'in a minute' and came back and told you what happened.

*

In the Professor's study, Kurt had been laid down on the couch and the Professor, Jean, Storm, Logan, and Scott were standing around him.

"So whaddya gonna do to the Elf?" Logan asked.

"First, we have to find what's causing his very uncharacteristic aggression. Then, we can help him with whatever's going on," the Professor said, putting his hands on Kurt's temples.

"This could be hard."


	3. Fangs

**Disclaimer: I still don't own XME.**

**A/N: We just got three feet of snow (very odd for northern Virginia) and we're out for a whole week, so expect fast updates. There's reported more snow on the way and hopefully more school off. However, my sister and I get to go skiing with friends of the family, so chapter 4 might be delayed.**

**Fangs**

Darkness. Raging emotions and depression weighing on his body, on his heart, on his thoughts and actions, tainting them. Helplessness he couldn't do anything about. He killed Margali! Anger. Anger at the townspeople in Germany. Anger at himself. Anger at God, who could have stopped this. And there was fear. Heart-stopping, overpowering fear. If the people killed Margali, would they come to kill him? What would they stop at to execute their "demon?" They would take him down in a heartbeat, so why was he going to Germany, right into their hands? He knew he would die someday, one way or another. Nobody lived forever. How would he die? Would God let him into heaven?

Professor X was as lost in Kurt's mind as Kurt himself was. They couldn't gain any footholds of rationality. The feelings were so strong, like gale winds, they swept the two mutants away and threw them around like a tornado. They were playthings of whatever instincts Kurt had. Animalistic instincts. No! Professor X had to get out!

With great difficulty, the Professor pulled himself from Kurt's mind.

"What is it, Charles?" Storm, or Ororo, asked gently.

"Kurt's mind is in turmoil. There's no structure, only emotion. He has withdrawn into himself and his instincts are controlling him. Instincts very much like a predatory animal's." Professor X said, steepling his fingers. As the five were absorbing this, Kurt stirred. He sat up and looked blearily around.

Jean froze in something close to fear. The Professor was wary, waiting for him to move. Logan was on edge by what the Professor had said, and Storm was weighing how much control Kurt had over how strong his emotions were.

While he appeared peaceful on the outside, on the inside, Kurt was grappling for control, fighting his instincts with bared fangs and hateful eyes. Kurt pounced on his instincts and beat them down, sitting high above the dark pit of whirlwind emotions that Kurt had been caught in. Finally, he perched above it all, sad, but in control nonetheless.

"I need to go to Germany," were the first words out of Kurt's mouth. Everyone looked relieved, and, to some degree, confused.

"But why, Kurt? You're not really . . ." Jean started.

"Not really vat? Not really strong enough? Not really in control enough?" he asked sharply. "I said ze same zing to Keety: if _your_ mozzer died, vould you not vant to go and see her vone last time? Tell me zat you'd stay here und act very normally vile your brozzer und seester are having a funeral for her. Tell me zat you vouldn't care."

Jean was at a loss for words. Storm, however, wasn't.

"Kurt, you don't understand the whole situation. If you went back to Germany, even for two days, you'd be in danger. We understand that people in Germany don't like demons, and Kurt, you happen to look like a demon."

"Zank you for pointing out ze most obvious zing in ze room," Kurt said sarcastically.

"Let me finish. What do you think would happen if you went to Germany and you didn't come back. What would happen to us? Really, Kurt, you can't go." Storm said resolutely while Kurt thought up a thorny remark.

"I stand by vat I said earlier. You von't make me stay, _und damit basta_![1]" Kurt said, and teleported away.

"What did he just say?" Jean asked, astounded. Nobody knew.

"Well, if you took German, you'd know that '_und damit basta'_ means the same as 'and that's that.' I don't what to know what you thought it meant." Evan said from the doorway. He turned and left the doorway for the rec. room, which had, by this time, been vacated by the new recruits.

Meanwhile, up in his room, Kurt was scheming on how to get to Germany. Flights to there were long and expensive. He could stow away in a plane. He didn't care. In his crazy, maniacal determination, he was willing to go to the extremes. There was a knock on his door and he whipped around to see Kitty standing there.

"You look better," she said almost shyly. Kurt kept staring at her, waiting for her to say something that actually meant something to his frenzied mind. When Kitty saw Kurt wasn't going to say anything, she abandoned all pretense of conversation.

"Kurt. I heard from Jean you're, like, going to Germany. It's too dangerous. You won't go!" she said forcefully, crossing the room and grabbing Kurt's shoulder, for he had turned his back on her. He turned around quickly, teeth bared at the touch. Kitty backed up in alarm, which quickly became anger.

"Fine! Be that way! See what I care when you get yourself killed!" and with that, she stormed out of his room. Kurt's brain didn't register the weight of what had just happened, only that Kitty had become angry and left.

As soon as a gazelle runs from danger, Kurt made up his mind. He was stowing away – and leaving tonight.

**1****The phrase, '**_**und damit basta**_**' really does mean 'and that's that.' My German teacher, Frau Hall, taught the class that, along with some other words. Next time you're in the presence of parents, snobby teachers, and the upper class, utter some of these choice German false cognates:**

** ,,**_**Schnitt!**_**" Pronounced "shnit". Meaning in German: to cut.**

** ,,**_**Fach!**_**" Pronounced with a very hard "ch" almost like a "ck". Meaning in German: subject.**

** ,,**_**Ass!**_**" Pronounced more like "ahss". Meaning in German: perfect (past) tense of **_**essen**_**, to eat. Should be said with some other words like this: ,,**_**Ich ass Pizza!**_**" (I ate pizza.)**

**,,**_**Und damit basta!**_**" ****Pronounced "und dahmit bahstah". Meaning in German: and that's that!**

** Hope you put them to good use! Just cite me and explain that it's German for those words. **_**Viel spaβ und viel glück mit die Worten!**_


	4. Eyes

**Disclaimer: It's still the same, so I hope you've memorized it!**

**A/N: I have a lot of time on my hands unexpectedly, so I'm probably going to be able to write quite a bit before the ski trip. There will be a delay somewhere along the line, though.**

**A/N2: This first part is somewhat like a songfic, but the chapter's really sort of a flashback, just for the heads up. Song lyrics used will be at the bottom, in case you'd like to know.**

**Eyes**

_They say the eyes are the window to the soul. They say the eyes give away all. They say the eyes are what makes a person human. What happens when a person is born with no eyes? Are they not human, not part of what we humans call accepted society? Are they a monster, to be feared, killed, and hated? Are they a disfigured human, to be pitied and put to sleep? _

_How can you see into my eyes,_

_ Like open doors?_

_Leading you down into my core, _

_Where I've become so numb._

_Do they not have a soul? Do they not feel, not love, nor hate? Do they not understand the way they are cursed? Do they know the world they cannot see? Do they not feel fear when someone whispers in their ear of wondrous dark secrets? Do they ever really live? Do they?_

Panic. That was all the poor woman ever knew. Panic: would the villagers know? Panic: would the father know? Panic: what would happen at the birth? Panic: would either of them survive?

Her thoughts were broken, confused. Did the voice mean to kill the baby at the birth? Why her? Had the entity chosen other unfortunate women to suffer? God will she lived through this.

Pain tore through her body. In the forest, just feet in front of her, wolves howled. She felt a spasm of fear as the wolves growled before her, and the torchlight and rough shouts of the villagers chased her, fuelling her terror. Taking no note of her surroundings, she plunged into the darkness, her bare feet pounding on the rough, twig-strewn forest floor.

The wolves padded along, keeping pace easily. The villagers faded away and dissolved at the border of the forest, torches extinguished and weapons dropped. The wolves would finish the freak carrying the Devil's child. The woman felt pain as the baby kicked hard. She stopped and doubled over. The wolves encroached, their eyes glinting in the dull moonlight.

The woman's breath came in short, sharp pants as she looked up and saw the pairs of eyes focused on her vulnerable form. She stood. One of the wolves leaped for her, its claws raking rough gashes down her back. She screamed in pain and fell forwards. All the predators rushed forwards. Claws raked her skin and teeth carved out fatal designs in her chest and neck.

She was dying already. The wolves were doing her a favor. This baby was killing her. As four sharp canine teeth were about to end her short, painful life, a clang echoed through the woods and the sounds of yelping, pained wolves filled her ears. Blood flowed from her body into the ground, clouding her vision and senses. Rough hands lifted her as blackness and nothingness enveloped her.

*

The feeling of relief that her choppy life was coming to an end was replaced once again by panic as the woman awoke on a cold bed of stone. Where was she? Why was she here? Why did she feel no pain? She opened her eyes to darkness. Once they adjusted, dark grey blocks of rough-hewn stone swam into view. She saw the awful wounds the wolves had inflicted on her, but felt nothing from them.

She lifted her head and saw her toes. How could she? She was nine months pregnant – well, not anymore. Her fingers found neat rows of stitches on her stomach where the baby should have been. Nothing was right here.

The woman swung her legs over the side of the stone and sat up, making her head spin wildly. Once the world had come to a stop, the woman gazed around what appeared to be dungeons of a large castle. She was alone. There was a sliver of light cast on the wall from under a door. The way out. As the woman stood and walked over to the door, she heard faint noises. Noises of life, noises of habitation. She heaved open the door. Her breath caught in her throat.

There was no mistaking the cries. They were the screams of a newborn. The screams of a newborn in pain and distress. _Her_ newborn.

*

In the laboratory upstairs from the dungeons, the man held the newborn in his hands. He was a normal baby, all except in the fact he had not opened his eyes. The man's gentle fingers opened the child's eyes and almost dropped the thing.

It had no eyes. Only empty sockets. A horribly disfigured baby.

"An outcast by birth. Nobody will miss him – except that woman . . . I could take care of her if you so wish . . . ?" A low, smooth voice asked from the man's left. "He will be perfect for your purpose . . ."

There was no arguing with the man's servant's infallible logic.

"Start the generators. I'll need electricity."

*

Separated from her baby and frantic, the woman was trying to reach the source of the cries, which cut off suddenly as a sinister humming wound through the walls.

"No!" she screamed. A door clanged open at the end of the hall and a figure stood silhouetted for a second before the door closed with an ominous groan.

"Come here, woman. I need to tell you something," the smooth voice of the man's servant spoke. The woman, shaking from head to toe, approached the servant. He had short red hair and wore a long, dark brown cloak. Heavy boots and leather gloves covered his feet and hands. He had a surprisingly kind face with dark blue eyes and an abundance of freckles stretching across the bridge of his nose. None of this mattered. What mattered was that he was a mutant.

"Tell me my baby is safe!" the woman shouted, ten feet away from the servant.

"I'm afraid I cannot say that he is safe _now_. However, he will be safe in a few minutes," he said coldly with a wicked grin. The woman's heart nearly stopped.

"No . . . you can't . . ." the woman said weakly, sinking to her knees.

"No, _I_ can't, but Magneto can. You were very hard to find, _Mystique_. Show me what you look like. I won't beat you. I'm a mutant like you. They call me Pyro, for a strange, small reason," the servant said with a smirk. Mystique looked up at him, afraid what he was going to say next.

"What do you mean, show you what I look like?" she asked in a wavering voice. Pyro raised his hand and struck her across the face swiftly.

"You know what I mean! I said I would not beat you, but you may push me to it if you insist on playing this game," Mystique flinched as she expected Pyro to hit her again, but this time, the tips of his leather gloves trailed across her cheek. She glared at him defiantly before letting herself go.

Her skin seemed to be burning for the smallest second before the change spread to the tips of her toes. She stood and Pyro took in her appearance with highly interested eyes. Her hair was now down to her waist and flaming red. Her skin, previously stained red with blood, was now a dark gray-blue. Her irises were very dark brown, close to black. Clothes had appeared with her, in the form of a long, neat-fitting white dress.

"I think I may have to go back on my word," Pyro said respectively, his gaze lingering on parts of Mystique's body.

"Now give me my son!" Mystique demanded. Pyro laughed cruelly.

"I cannot do that, you poor woman! I'm afraid your son won't survive what Magneto has in store for him. The best you can do is to leave this castle and never breathe a word. Perhaps you can have a _real_ son now."

"What do you mean, a "_real_ son"?" Mystique asked sharply. Pyro laughed again.

"The baby Magneto has upstairs has no eyes, Mystique. He would have been killed anyway. Do not trouble yourself with him. Go find yourself a new village, if you please." Pyro held the door he had come through open, telling more than inviting. Mystique was halfway through when she shape shifted. Assuming the form of a large grey wolf, she turned and attacked Pyro viciously, leaving him bleeding and moaning on the floor as she galloped through the castle, toward the source of the humming, and her son.

She flew up the stairs and skidded around the corner, flinging herself into the door blocking her from her child. The door splintered into matchsticks and blinding light met Mystique's eyes, stopping her dead in her tracks. With her eyes closed, she snarled horribly. From the images burning through her eyelids, Mystique saw the large figure of who she assumed was Magneto turn toward her and jump in fright.

Mystique's muscles coiled and released fluidly as she sprang at Magneto. She knocked him aside and snatched the baby from his hands, holding it gently in her teeth as she tore back through the castle. She followed her nose to the cool, fresh night air and burst out into the dark German night. She almost fell into the fathoms-deep ravine that was the moat of the castle, built on the mountains. Sliding to an impressive stop, she sprayed pebbles and chunks of turf over the side.

The baby in her jaws bawled pitifully. She wheeled around and galloped off along the side of the castle until she reached the stone causeway descending into the forest. The wolves in the forest howled again, still mourning for their loss of prey and defeat. As Mystique traced a path around them, the baby started crying again, attracting the canines' attention.

She shape shifted back to her blue-skinned form with the baby in her arms and ran for her life. Mystique came to a rope bridge strung high over the roaring, foaming waters of the nearby river. The wolves stopped at the edge of the bridge, wary of it. They snarled and growled, put tentative paws on the rickety planks, and howled when they found she was unreachable. The new mother looked down at her infant. She screamed.

The wolves went wild with the scream, howling and slavering, watching the people hungrily. The alpha wolf put two paws on the board and stretched his blunt, scarred muzzle toward them. Mystique was torn in horror between the approaching wolf and the monster her child was. The baby was blue, like her, but not by skin pigmentation. He had fur. His ears were pointed and legs deformed so that he almost had hocks.2 A stubby, spaded tail made itself known as it swished around the child's legs. He opened his mouth to cry and Mystique saw fangs.

The wolf, meanwhile, was four paws and three steps closer to Mystique, who retreated farther toward the middle of the bridge. The wolf growled in frustration, and snapped at the hem of Mystique's dress. The child was born without eyes, but through what Magneto had done to him, he had eyes, all right.

Suddenly, the wolf made up his mind. Mystique had not even a second to glimpse her child's eyes: pure gold with white irises. No pupils. The wolf bounded over the planks at her, and knocked the baby out of Mystique's hands, falling down toward the raging water that threw itself over the side of the mountain in a spectacular waterfall.

"Please, please! No!" the woman screamed as the wolf's teeth snapped together. Her last thought was,

_Let my baby live._

** Ha ha! Chapter four! Tell me what you think of it. In case you didn't know, the baby is Kurt. The song lyrics I used earlier are from **_**Bring Me To Life**_** by Evanescence.**

**2 ****Hocks are what horses, cats, dogs, wolves, etc. have. It's the equivalent of a heel in a human, but most people consider it to be a "backwards-facing knee." Google it if this doesn't explain it well enough for you.**

**P.S. Reviews make me happy . . . to quote the 2010 Census, "I can't move forward until you write back!"**


	5. Instinct

**Disclaimer: do I even have to repeat myself?**

**A/N: It's well after 1:00 am as I write this, but I just can't sleep. I have my laptop and my faithful black cat, Salem, plus plenty of Lady GaGa music to keep me awake. I'm going to die skiing tomorrow—wait, no, in a few hours. The story should start getting good in either this chapter or the next couple.**

**A/N2: _After Ski Trip: _It's 10:00 pm and I just got back from the ski trip – whoo! I am tired! I haven't skied since I was nine, but I didn't wipe out, so it's all good. However, I have to give a shout-out to my friend, who was injured on a blue run called the Sidewinder. He crashed and twisted his knee and hurt his ankle. Hope you feel better soon, Master Of Epic Fail!**

**Instinct**

The engines of the plane were loud and annoying. Kurt was hidden in the dark belly of the plane, bound for the München _Flughafen_. Thank god this plane was carrying pets – or else the belly of the plane wouldn't be pressurized, and Kurt would be in a world of hurt.

As far as he was concerned, Kurt had plenty of time to plan how to get his revenge on the villagers that had killed his mother; as well as Connor, his childhood tormentor. His focus had shifted from attending the funeral and grieving quietly to making his desire for revenge well known. His instincts still were at large, driving him to go on, keep scheming, and let the dark fantasies of revenge twist and bend him.

_Revenge is a dish best served cold_, Kurt thought. _I'm keeping mine in the freezer._

*

At the Institute, though, everyone was in a state of uproar. Kurt had left no note as to where he had gone, and nobody was sure if he had actually followed through on his word and gone to Germany. Kitty refused to say anything as she was still upset that Kurt had growled at her. Only the new recruits, with the exception of Milani, were unaffected. Milani was like the sister Kitty never had: a shoulder to cry on, a person to whisper secrets to, and a person to giggle with over girly things. She was just so nice, and she always helped everybody with whatever problem they had, even Jean or Scott. When they came up against something they couldn't handle, like Scott's algebra homework, they were all amazed when Milani skated through it. She was one of the nicest people at the Institute.

"Kitty? Are you in here?" Milani asked as she knocked on Kitty's door.

"Yeah, what?" Kitty called roughly by means of greeting.

"I came to see if you were okay. I heard that um, whatshisface, Kurt, growled at you. The way I'm reading it, you two were best friends, and you're not very happy." Milani assessed as Kitty kept her back to the young lady, sitting cross-legged on her bed, staring out the window.

"No, I'm not happy. It's so not like Kurt to be all dark and moody and growl at people. His mother's death seriously messed him up." Kitty said shortly.

"Yeah, I'm sure anybody's mother dying would mess you up," Milani said, coming over to sit next to Kitty, who didn't stop her or protest.

"When I first came to the Institute, and Logan was having our first outdoor training session, we were in the woods. I got lost and ended up in the middle of the 'enemy' territory, and it was only Kurt that saved me from getting, like, pelted with paint balloons. He just teleported in, and, like, took me out of the line of fire. When I finally opened my eyes, we were standing in this little clearing. Well, I was sitting and he was up in the tree, but, like, you know what I mean.

"I asked him why he teleported here, and he said it was the heart of the forest. Nobody could get here without teleporting or phasing through a lot of trees. Then I asked him why he took me out of the line of fire, and he gave me this look and said, these were his exact words, I swear: 'Kätzchen, the first time I saw you, I thought you were smart. And now you're asking me why someone from your team who is much more experienced than you helped you. I think I should go back and rethink the first time I saw you.' I remember, I, like, laughed so hard. Kurt's actually really nice and funny when you get to know him." Kitty said with a watery giggle. Milani smiled. She wondered if Logan would use paint balloons in _their_ first outdoor session.

"Where do you think he is now?" Milani asked gently.

"Oh, I know where he is now," Kitty said, with absolute certainty. "He's found some way to get to Germany, and he's probably halfway there by now."

"I hope he doesn't cause any trouble over there," the Korean girl said, truly hoping that because -- unbeknown to Kitty, or herself, for that matter -- she had a crush on Kurt.

"The way he was when I last saw him, causing trouble's, like, the only thing on his mind. He said he just wanted to go, like, attend the funeral, but I think he'd rather exact his revenge. He and the townspeople go, like, way back. He told me that, when he was, like, little, they put him in a cage and beat him. For someone who's, like, so happy all the time, I think he's actually, like, pretty messed up deep down. He's a good person, but he's messed up." Kitty said, starting to cry. Milani put her arm around Kitty's shoulders and shushed her quietly, just the way a real sister would, and both of them sat quietly, watching the sun set, knowing somewhere in the world, Kurt was out there.

*

Kurt stretched his cramped legs and tail as the rumble of the engines started fading and the noise of feet started growing above his head. The hatch in the belly of the plane opened, and _Flughafen_ workers started unloading the luggage. Kurt poked his head around a big green suitcase and fixed his eyes on the luggage cart. _Bamf_! He was in. Now all he had to do was wait until they got to the building, switch his inducer on, and get to the town . . .

*

Kurt had managed to stow away several more times on trucks heading east, in the general direction of where Kurt was headed. As the truck rumbled to a stop, Kurt teleported out and saw the jagged horizon of a town within walking distance. He galloped along the road on four legs, sticking to the trees and shadows. He ran by a sign welcoming travelers to Porthensburg,3 Kurt's hometown. At the edge of the _Fuβgängerzone_, or pedestrian zone that was the old downtown, Kurt switched on his image inducer and strolled down the streets, lit by the streetlamps, as it was now dark.

He passed several pubs that were in full swing, the warmth, light, and contented chatter trying to lure him inside. The boy ignored everything until he reached _Ernst-Schwendler Straβe_, and turned down there to number 6. He knocked quickly on the door, which was opened by a disheveled-looking Jimaine.

,,Hallo, wer sind Sie? Warte . . . Kurt? Warum bist du hier?" 'Oh, hello, who are you? Wait . . . Kurt? Why are you here?' Jimaine asked, shaking her head. Her pale gold hair had not been put up and it hung loose around her shoulders. Her eyes were slightly red and there was an absence of energy around her, both magical and normal.

,,Ich habe gekommen weil ich will Margali ein Zeit mehr sehen." 'I came because I want to see Margali one last time.' Kurt said, looking up and down the street. ,,Darf ich rein kommen?" 'May I come in?'

,,Oh, ja . . . " 'Oh, yeah . . .' Jimaine said, and stood aside to let Kurt into the small apartment.

,,Wo ist Stefan?" 'Where's Stefan?' Kurt asked, switching his image inducer off and facing Jimaine again with an almost businesslike briskness.

,,Er ist aus, in das Pub." 'He's out, at the pub.' Jimaine replied, an edge of suspicion creeping into her voice. ,,Warum willst du wissen?" 'Why do you want to know?'

,,Eh, er ist mein Bruder. So wo ist Margali?" 'Eh, he's my brother. So where's Margali?' Kurt said, keeping the businesslike manner.

,,Da wird kein Korper verlassen hinterher die brennend. Die Beerdigung ist morgen." 'There was no body left after the burning. The funeral's tomorrow.' Jimaine said, starting to cry. Kurt left behind all the stiffness and went to comfort his sister.

,,Leise, es werd okay sein," 'Shh, it's going to be okay,' Kurt said tenderly, wrapping his arms around Jimaine, who clutched him and leaned her head into his shoulder.

,,Es fühlt wie ich allein bin ohne Mutti," 'It feels like I'm alone without Mom,' Jimaine sobbed into Kurt's shoulder. Kurt felt himself dissolving, close to tears.

,,Ich bin hier. Niemand sollen die Beerdigung ruineiren; nicht weil ich kann etwas sagen." 'I'm here. No one's going to ruin the funeral; not while I can say anything.' Kurt said, determination setting in his voice.

,,Danke, Kurt. Ich weiβ dass du wie mein Bruder bist, aber, ich leibe dich, nicht wie ein Bruder. Wie ein Freund." 'Thanks, Kurt. I know that you're like my brother, but I love you, not like a brother. Like a boyfriend.' Jimaine said, looking up into Kurt's eyes. Kurt wiped the tears on her cheeks away with the tip of his tail.

Jimaine suddenly felt pressured to kiss Kurt. Did he feel the same way? The boy was suddenly quite confused because Jimaine was sending him mixed messages. From her eyes and words, Kurt was hearing and seeing, 'kiss me,' but from her tense body, he was feeling 'don't kiss me.' Jimaine made up her mind and whispered two words.

,,Kuβ mich." 'Kiss me.'

Kurt hesitated, searching Jimaine's eyes for contradiction to stay in the safe zone where they were friends, like brother and sister. There was no such thing.

Slowly, Kurt pressed his lips against Jimaine's. She was scared because it felt odd, kissing someone you consider to be your brother. Kurt tasted the salt from her tears on her lips, but didn't push her or make an advance. They stayed like that, lips touching gently, for a few moments.

The door flew open just then, and Stefan, Kurt and Jimaine's brother, stepped in from the night. He took in Jimaine and Kurt standing together, Jimaine wrapped in Kurt's arms. The two quickly took a couple steps back from each other, and Jimaine sniffled to show Stefan that Kurt had only been comforting her. Stefan gave Kurt an odd glance before starting to talk.

,,Ich war in das Pub, Das Silber Pferd, und ich habe leuten belauschen, und sie sagen das der Dämon, der Sohn die Zauberin, woll kommen und töd jemand wer hat Margali gebrennt. Warum wissen sie das? Ist das wirklich was du willst, Kurt?" 'I was in the pub, the Silver Horse, and I overheard some people, and they said that the demon, the son of the sorceress, will come and kill anyone who burned Margali. Why do they know that? Is that really what you want, Kurt?' Stefan asked, his mousy brown hair ruffled from the wind, and his eyes bright. There was no accusation in his voice, but the question was sharp.

,,Ich weiβ nicht wie sie wissen, aber ja, ich will Margali's Mördern töd." 'I don't know how they know, but yes, I want to kill Margali's murderers.' Kurt said levelly, raising his chin. Stefan kept staring at him, eyes hardening.

After a minute of this tense showdown, Stefan spoke again.

,,Dann all glück für dich. Du kannst hier schlafen für die Nacht." 'Then all luck for you. You can spend the night here.' Stefan said, eyes still hard, but tone softening as he smiled slightly, as if Kurt was only going to play soccer or something.

Jimaine, who had frozen against the wall when Stefan entered, suddenly voiced her opinion.

,,Nein! Kurt, du kannst nicht leute töd! Und Stefan, nein, er kann nicht hier schlafen! Sie spinnen! Was denken sie, das es ein groβe Witz ist?! Raus! Beide dich! Raus! Ich will nicht sie sehen für die Rast meine Leben!" 'No! Kurt, you can't just kill people! And Stefan, no, he can't sleep here! You're crazy! What do you think this is, a big joke?! Out! Both of you! Out! I don't want to see you for the rest of my life!' Jimaine shouted, her tears redoubling. She pointed to the door angrily, and Kurt opened his mouth to protest, but Jimaine shook her head and pointed again to the door.

Both men had the door slammed on them, nearly catching Kurt's tail. Stefan looked at Kurt in amazement, and Kurt back.

,,Was ist los mit ihr?" 'What's up with her?' Stefan muttered, starting to walk down the street. Kurt quickly switched his image inducer on again and caught up with his brother.

,,Sie ist aufgeregt. Sie hat zu mir gesagen das sie fühlt so allein ohne Margali," 'She's upset. She said to me that she feels so alone without Margali,' Kurt supplied. Stefan nodded as he walked.

,,Sie hat den gleiche ding zu mir gesagen." 'She said the same thing to me.'

The two walked down the street, keeping to the less populated section of town. Neither of them knew where they were going, and hoped when they came back, Jimaine would've calmed down and let them in, seeing as they had no place to spend the night.

*

Back at number 6, Jimaine slid down the wall to sit with her head on her knees.

,,Ich bin wirklich allein jetzt," 'Now I'm really alone,' she sobbed to herself. She felt a warm hand on her shoulder, and thought it was Kurt or Stefan, coming back to ask her to take what she had said back. She didn't pay attention to the fact that the door hadn't opened or closed. Jimaine ignored the hand on her shoulder, until it became unbearably hot. She looked up with hatred, expecting to see one of the men, but she saw nothing.

Jimaine screamed and tried to get up and run away from the hand, but she was frozen in terror. Another hand was placed on her other shoulder, and Jimaine still saw nothing, except the indents in her shirt caused by the weight of the hands.

,,Sind Sie ein Mutant?" 'Are you a mutant?' Jimaine asked shakily to the air. The hands moved off her shoulders and grabbed her wrists, hauling her to her feet. Jimaine struggled and tried to pry the invisible, unnaturally strong hands off her wrists, but didn't succeed. The hands started pulling her down the hall, and she tried to brace against anything, but the runner under her feet only slid. Jimaine screamed bloody murder, but the walls of the old apartment were thick, and nobody heard her.

When the hands had dragged her into the kitchen, one hand released and the cupboard by the stove flew open. Jimaine jumped and tried to pry the other hand off again. The flour sack ripped open all of a sudden and coated everything in a fine white powder. The sorceress girl closed her eyes, and when the dust had settled, opened them again, blinking the flour out of her eyelashes.

What Jimaine saw gave her the worst shock of her life.

**Ooh, booga-booga! Can you guess what she saw? Hint: look at the genre.**

**3 I don't know if there is actually a town called Porthensburg, and if there is, I don't think it's anywhere NEAR Munich (American spelling). Just a little fun thing, 6, _Ernst-Schwendler Stra__βe _(pronounced "shtrahsseh") is where I lived in Frankfurt in Germany. He he!  
**

**,,These quote marks" define when someone's speaking German, in case you can't tell by what they're saying. It's how the Germans do "these quote marks". **


	6. Pain

**Disclaimer: Alright, I'm caving and typing the dreaded words: ,,Ich besitze nicht die X-Men!" There. You just learned German.**

**A/N: I'm sorry I keep doing the cliffhanger endings and switching scenes, but it's to keep the tension! The story should start getting good in these next few chapters.**

**A/N2: Trisket's my other OC. Same notice with Milani.**

**Pain**

For all the mutants at the Mansion, there was pain. In some way, shape, or form, there was definite hurt. Whether it be from Logan's training sessions, boyfriends and girlfriends breaking up, or Kurt leaving, they all felt it.

Over the period of time Kurt had been gone, two days, Milani and Kitty had become fast friends, and Kitty realized she couldn't pull a Kurt and become unreachable, withdrawn, and haunted. Milani had an epiphany and realized, from all the times she and Kitty talked about him, had seen pictures of him, and heard about what a cool person he was from Evan, she liked Kurt. Like a cute little middle school crush, though Kurt was a sophomore and Milani a freshman.

Kitty's door opened and closed silently, and Milani strolled in, unnoticed by Kitty until she tapped the girl on the shoulder. Kitty turned around suddenly and yelped when she saw no one there.

"Milani!" Kitty muttered, and Milani appeared smoothly, leaning against the wall with her hands in her jeans pockets.

"Just thought I'd come in. I was bored and Logan's on the warpath – Trisket couldn't handle her powers and put Scott in the infirmary. So how's life for you, lucky original X-Woman who only has training sessions once a month?" Milani asked, a smile reminiscent of Kurt playing on her face. She was trying her best to cheer Kitty up, and she thought it was working. Milani's family was unstable and quite awful to be around, and her adopted sister, Sasha, was vain and mean to her. However, she had come out quite cheerful. The Korean didn't know what Kitty's past was -- she didn't talk about it, but Milani assumed it was pretty normal. Even though, Milani had always wanted a nice, caring sister, or someone like Kitty. She hoped Kitty felt the same way.

"Trisket? What does she do?" Kitty asked vaguely, not really hearing Milani's reply, staring out the window at the setting sun. Every night since Kurt had left, Kitty watched the sunset with rapt interest. It reminded her of how, in the summer, she and Kurt would normally sit together and watch the colors dance across the sky. Their first real conversation, and first kiss . . .

_It was summer, mid-July, two years before Kurt left. Kitty was lying out on the lawn in her pajamas, just lying there, apparently asleep. Kurt teleported out to her with a blanket to cover her up. Nights got cold up here. As he started to put it over her, she sat up._

_ "Hey Kurt. Whaddya doin' out here?" Kitty asked, eyeing the blanket._

_ "I just zought . . ." Kurt trailed off, uncomfortable. Sure, he and Kitty knew each other, but Kurt didn't know if Kitty was okay with him . . . she had been the last resident at the Institute to accept his appearance._

_ "Good. You actually thought." Kitty said, and Kurt couldn't tell if it was a friendly jibe or a stinging insult._

_ "Vell, I just zought zat you'd get cold if you vere sleeping out here," Kurt finished, rubbing the back of his neck with nervousness. Kitty said nothing, and her face betrayed no emotion for a moment._

_ "That's sweet." Kitty smiled up at him. "Cop a seat, you can watch the sunset perfectly from here."_

_ Kurt was surprised by her sudden friendliness, and sat down cross-legged beside her. Kitty lay back down with her legs crossed comfortably and her hands behind her head. Her hair was spread around her face, like a dark halo. A few strands blew across her face, and without thinking, Kurt tucked them behind her ear._

_ Kitty looked startled, but said nothing. Kurt was surprised himself. Why had he done that?_

_ "Go on, get comfortable. No need to sit there like a statue all night," Kitty said, a slight edge to her voice. Kurt lay down in the soft grass beside her, putting his hands behind his head and making sure his tail was on the other side of him so it wouldn't annoy Kitty. He was very careful about these things because he didn't want to break the delicate acquaintance they had._

_ The two watched as the last beams of the sun shot over the sky above them, striking the Mansion and turning patches of it pure gold. The same color gold as Kurt's eyes, Kitty thought lazily. Did Kurt like her? Was that why he came out with the blanket, which was now crumpled and forgotten on his other side?_

_ The temporary death of the sun progressed quickly, the beams fading and colors flooding across the clouds, like a watercolor painting in motion. Kurt's arm was pressed up against Kitty's and his velvety fur tickled her skin. He switched his tail to the other side so it was occasionally flicking her calf. She actually didn't mind. _

_ As the sun stained the sky pink and purple and the air chilled slightly, Kitty nudged closer to Kurt. Dark navy color blossomed over the sky, beating the hues of the sun back. With the darkness, stars dotted the sky, pinpricks of silver light. _

_ From the clear sky, rain began falling gently. Kitty jumped up and grabbed the blanket, putting it over her head. Kurt smiled at her, the rain running off his fur._

_ "Never been out in ze rain at night, Kätzchen?" The first time Kurt called her Kätzchen._

_ "It's exhilarating," he said, standing up and holding out his hand for Kitty to take. She looked at it for a moment, then took it. Kurt pulled her up and the rain continued, splashing off their bodies and the grass. Kitty caught the infectious atmosphere of the rain, an air of breaking rules and daring summer romance._

_ Kitty smiled hugely and cartwheeled away from Kurt. He laughed and flipped a couple times. The girl huffed playfully and did a roundoff to a front handspring to try to top the German's flips. _

_ "You're teasing me, Kätzchen!" Kurt called and got a good run up before doing a double flip, two revolutions in the air without his feet touching the ground. He landed, gold eyes gleaming, fur black and slicked with rain. The rain flattened his fur against his skin, detailing the planes of his muscles through his thin shirt. His fur didn't give him credit, Kitty thought. _

_ Kitty ran up to Kurt and pushed him backwards. He caught himself and executed a back walkover, his tail following in a wide arc. He straightened up and his eyes glinted mischievously._

_ He grabbed Kitty's hand and pulled her to him so she spun on the wet grass, landing against his chest. She looked up into his eyes, then pushed away from him, releasing his hand and spinning, arms outstretched, head turned toward the rain, eyes closed with the joyous feeling of warm rain._

_ Kurt stood and watched the beauty, Kitty, spin, her dark, wet hair whipping around behind her as she danced across the lawn, tempting Kurt to follow. _

_ He smiled madly and stretched his arms out, spinning slowly as he caught raindrops on his tongue. He closed his eyes and let the rain wash over him. _

_ Kitty stopped spinning and laughed, giddy and dizzy from spinning. She caught sight of Kurt spinning and laughed harder, stumbling over to him. Just as she was about to push him backwards again, and hopefully catch him off-guard, he stopped spinning and pushed Kitty backwards. _

_ The girl stopped laughing as she fell onto the wet grass, and lifted her eyes to Kurt, who looked as if he was sorry he pushed her. After a few moments like this, the two burst out laughing, and Kurt lay down beside her again. Kitty rolled onto her side, and so did Kurt. They stopped laughing, but kept smiling. _

_ The way Kitty went after Kurt could be called an attack, but Kurt didn't think so; at least, not at that moment. She almost lunged at him, her hands flying to cup his cheeks as her lips landed half on his. She pulled back quickly and looked embarrassed._

_ "You missed," Kurt said, taking the line straight from the movies. Kitty giggled and blushed, and Kurt smiled, wrapping his tail around her ankle. They were laughing in great spirits when Logan came running up to them._

_ "Whaddya think you're doin' out here in the rain?! Get inside right now!" Shadowcat and Nightcrawler stood, looking rightfully embarrassed, but holding hands. The magic of the summer rain romance had worn off the split second Logan had yelled at them, so now the rain was just wet and cold._

_ However, they smiled at each other maddeningly as Logan marched them inside. They would never forget that moment._

"Kitty? You look lost in something." Milani said, bringing Kitty back to reality. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes.

"Sorry . . . just remembering . . ." Kitty muttered. She looked at the window. Night had fallen and the sky was deep and dark, dotted by ageless stars.

"What about?" the other girl asked, just out of interest.

"Oh, something you won't hear about anytime soon," Kitty said teasingly. Milani grimaced at her. Milani, like everybody, had natural curiosity, and it didn't help when Kitty was acting this secretive.

"Sisters don't keep secrets," Milani warned. Kitty rolled her eyes.

"Milani, we're hardly sisters. We're, like, so ethnically different, and you're really, like, smart. I'm a dumb brunette," Kitty smiled.

"You're not dumb, Kitty! Who cares if we're "ethnically different?" I mean, my sister's from Russia. I'm adopted," Milani added to explain. Kitty nodded. Milani opened her mouth to say more about her family, but decided she didn't want to burden Kitty with her problems, and closed it quickly. Kitty wasn't stupid, and caught that Milani wanted to say something.

"What?" Kitty asked. Milani shook her head. Kitty narrowed her eyes. "C'mon, Milani. You're the one who was just saying sisters don't keep secrets,"

"It's about my family. I've never told anyone. I don't like to think about them. My adoptive parents were racist, so they clearly favored Sasha over me. My adoptive father was really mean. He didn't beat me or anything like that, he was just mean. He treated me like I was worse than beautiful Russian Sasha . . . But even he was better than my mother. She doesn't deserve to call herself my mother. She was absolutely horrible. She would make me do all my chores, and Sasha's, and more after that. She said that yellow-skinned people, people from Asia, were inferior to white Europeans, especially Russians, like she and my adopted father and Sasha were." Milani explained, sobbing.

"Then why on God's green earth did she, like, adopt you?" Kitty demanded angrily. She was angry at Milani's "mother," not Milani.

"Sasha wanted a sister, a friend to play with. My adoptive parents couldn't have another child, physically, so they went to the orphanage. I was the only girl there at the time. I don't know why my biological parents gave me up, but they did, to an orphanage in _Russia_, of all places. Apparently, they said that the adoption agency should only let someone adopt me if they kept my given name: _Milan Sweet Blossom Ko_. They picked that name for me when they visited Milan, Italy, and fell in love with it. Anyways, what sort of name is that? It sounds like the name you'd give to a show horse or dog." Milani giggled a little, then saw Kitty wasn't catching on, so stopped quickly.

"I just can't figure out why they would, like, drop you off with a weird name in, like, a strange, faraway country for them." Kitty frowned. Milani looked on.

"But my adoptive parents ignored my real parents' request to name me Milan, but Sasha thought the name Milan was exotic. My fake parents would do _anything_ for their dear, sweet Sasha," Milani spat bitterly, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. "So when Sasha said she wanted me to be named Milan, her parents were happy to oblige. Except, Sasha wasn't old enough to like a plain name, like Milan, so she had to have a name with 'flair,' or a name like 'Milani.' I hated it, but Sasha's parents forced me to respond to it. So here I am, as Milani 'Milan Sweet Blossom' Ko."

"Wow," Kitty said. "You must've really hated your life before you came here,"

"Yeah. No duh. But now I'm so happy I have a friend like you, Kitty. You're like the sister I never had," Milani said, and this time, instead of Kitty leaning on Milani's shoulder, Milani leaned on Kitty's shoulder, and sobbed. Kitty hugged her tightly and held her head tight.

*

Eventually, Kitty's mind drifted from Milani's family to Kurt's family. Not many people knew, but Mystique _had _survived the night of Kurt's birth, but only barely. She managed to flee from Germany to the US, to start the Brotherhood, but nobody knew where she went when she was gone for those long periods of time. But that was irrelevant to Kurt's twisted childhood, a childhood Kurt himself didn't know much about. The only people that knew fully were the Professor, and Logan, whom the Professor had told. The reason Professor X knew was when Kurt had been having nightmares, the Professor dove into his mind to find the root of the problems.

Usually, Kurt's nightmares involved blinding light, hot hands holding him, and strange, unforgettable pain. Kurt himself never knew, but the Professor unlocked some hidden memories and pieced together what happened. After that, he had confided in Logan what had happened, and the gruff instructor had sworn he would take the secret to his grave.

Kitty, Scott, and Jean knew the two men were hiding something deep and dark about Kurt's past, but they didn't push the subject. How often Kitty had sat in her room, wondering about Kurt's shadowed past, and how would someone recover from something like that? She had consulted the Professor, and they agreed that Kurt's boisterous spirit was probably a coping mechanism that had turned into habit until the bad memories had all but faded. Soon, Milani had finished crying and dried her eyes, and sat up from Kitty's shoulder. She had just been saying something, but Kitty didn't hear.

"Kitty? What's up? You remembering something again?" Milani asked. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"More like a silver dollar the way they're going," Kitty mumbled, looking up at Milani.

"I'd be willing to pay," Milani said.

"Well, I was thinking about the first time we – Kurt and me – kissed. Just a second ago, though, I was thinking about, like, Kurt's past." Kitty said, almost lapsing back into her first-kiss memory.

"Kurt's past?" the Korean asked with more excitement. Now Kitty knew why: Milani fancied Kurt, though they had never met.

"Yeah. Nobody – except for the Professor and Logan – really knows where or how he came, but all we know is that it's not, like, a fairy tale." Kitty began. Milani observed a respectful silence that gently prodded Kitty to go on. "So we know he was born somewhere in Germany – or Bavaria. He's never said for sure. His real mother's Mystique. He knows that somehow, but we don't, like, know how. Mystique's been gone for years. She shows up at the Brotherhood occasionally, but other than that, we don't see her.

"So he lived with his foster mother, Margali, and her two kids, Jimaine and Stefan, for, like, his whole life and considers Margali his mother. I got to meet Jimaine one time, and she's nice. She only speaks, like, German, so Kurt had to translate, but she was still, like, nice.

"He, like, worked for the circus as an acrobat, and that's, like, all I know. I guess it's kind of, like, sad that nobody really knows, but that's the way it, like, goes sometimes, right? It _is_ kind of romantic, all the mystery about his, like, past," Kitty said, smirking. Milani nodded in agreement. There was a pause.

"So who's Mystique?" Milani asked finally.

"Oh. She's another mutant, a shape shifter. She was with Magneto for a little while, then she broke off and formed her own group called the Brotherhood. She checks in on them, like, once every year. We haven't seen her so far, but we know she's coming back soon." Kitty said.

"Hey guys, it's time for dinner." Scott knocked and opened the door enough to poke his head in and announce dinner, and see Kitty and Milani sitting and talking.

"Right. See you downstairs." Milani replied as Scott shut the door behind him.

"Express route," Kitty smiled before grabbing Milani's arm and phasing her down to the Library where she could go out into the dining room. Kitty followed after praying, very uncharacteristically.

_Please God, if you're, like, actually there, make sure wherever Kurt is he's safe. Make sure he's safe and happy, please God. Also, tell Milani's foster parents that they can go die in Hell for all I care. Oh, sorry . . . I guess I shouldn't have said that to you . . . Um, well, thanks, I guess. Amen._

Kitty opened her eyes and phased through the floor to the Library to go to dinner, not that she was really hungry, but she enjoyed the chatter. The brunette sat close to the middle of the table, next to the empty chair that was Kurt's.

"Hey Kitty, pass the potatoes," Evan asked from further down. Kitty handed him the tureen of mashed potatoes and took a few carrots from the dish in front of Kurt's plate. All around her, people were talking loudly and raucously, unaffected by Kurt's absence. She leaned back and munched on a carrot, listening to what other had to say.

". . . it was a great flip, I mean—"

"--the frickin' garbage can!"

"-- randomly throws this drawing, I mean how immature?"

"-- one girl with this awful attitude—"

". . . I couldn't control it, I'm sorry, Scott,"

Kitty leaned forward at this. That must be Trisket. She looked down the table and thought Rahne had a twin. Trisket looked amazingly like Rahne – the same red hair, granted, Trisket's was longer and not in pigtails, the same sort of face, but Rahne had more freckles. Just slight differences, but they did look very similar.

"It's okay, Trisket. I'm fine now. Jean had the same problem when she came here – maybe not that bad, but the same problem." Scott was saying across the table to Trisket, Jean nodding as she put chicken on her plate. So if Trisket had the same problems Jean had, that meant the Institute had another telepath on its hands. Interesting.

The rest of dinner sidled off and as the mutants finished, they retreated to various places like the kitchen, to help Ororo with the dishes, the rec. room to watch TV or just chill, or even back to their rooms for more peace and quiet. Kitty went back up to her room, and Milani came in with some stolen cupcakes.

"What Ororo doesn't know, won't hurt her," Milani smiled as they laughed and ate the cupcakes.

*

_Heaven hath no fury like a woman's scorn_. Kurt remembered that line from somewhere as he sat outside a little coffeeshop with Stefan. He had used some of his "stealth skills," as he liked to call them, to steal some clothes. Kurt knew it was wrong, but if Jimaine wasn't letting them in, they had to resort to other measures. Come to think of it, where _was_ Jimaine? Kurt and Stefan hadn't seen her around town for several days now, which was odd. Could something be wrong?

*

_The sorceress girl closed her eyes, and when the dust had settled, opened them again, blinking the flour out of her eyelashes. _

_ What Jimaine saw gave her the worst shock of her life._

. . . present day . . .

Jimaine's life had changed in a matter of seconds. One ripped bag of flour, one apparition, one message. After the flour had been ripped open and settled on everything, Jimaine saw what had been holding her, and she didn't like it one bit.

_Jimaine stared down at the hand, which was now visible with the white flour, and followed the arm up to the shoulder. Her eyes moved of their own accord, picking out individual body parts instead of the being as a whole. When she finally noticed it was the semblance of a woman standing there, she fought the hand off her wrist and stumbled backwards into the old table in the kitchen._

_ ,,Wer sind Sie? Warum sind Sie hier?" 'Who are you? Why are you here?' Jimaine shouted, the anger in her voice covering the fear. The ghost woman shook her head sadly. Jimaine looked at her face in more detail – not that there was any detail left. She had been horribly burned, and her face was grotesquely twisted, the skin melted and charred. She assumed the areas where the flour settled more thickly were areas of dark skin and clothing. The woman's hair and dress were silent, flour-white flames, but the arms and hands were unmarked, as if she had been holding them out of the flames when she died._

_ Ghosts appear the way they were when they died, and Jimaine knew that by the flames and horrible burns she had been burned to death. Her mind was working sluggishly with the grief for her mother and the horror of this ghost, but it was working nonetheless. _

_ ,,Mutti? Margali? Ist das wirklich du?" 'Mom? Margali? Is that really you?' Jimaine asked in quiet astonishment. The ghost woman stood watching her silently for a moment, then shook her head again, the white flames flickering._

_ ,,Dann wer sind Sie?! Erklär mal!" 'Then who are you?! Explain!' Jimaine shouted at the ghost again, tears cutting tracks through the coating of flour on her face. The ghost did nothing, as if thinking. This wasn't good enough for Jimaine. She lunged at the ghost and stood right in its face._

_ ,,Gib mir ein antwort!" 'Give me an answer!' Jimaine said loudly. The ghost watched her with cold consideration, then raised one hand. Jimaine watched the hand out of the corner of her eye, but was not expecting it when it slapped her across the face, causing renewed tears of pain to spring to her eyes. Jimaine sank to her knees and looked up at the ghost. _

_ The ghost still watched her with cold, almost unseeing white eyes. The two women, dead and living, were locked in a battle of wills, with the ghost woman winning. She raised her hand again and Jimaine flinched, expecting another stinging slap, and recoiled slightly when the surprisingly warm fingertips whispered over her cheek where she had been slapped._

_ ,,__Verzeihen Sie mir, Frau." 'Forgive me, woman.' Jimaine said quietly. The ghost nodded and turned toward the floured window above the sink. Her finger traced out 17 words:_

_Ich bin Mystique._

_Ich komme mit eine Warnung._

_Seien Sie vorsicht von der Teufel du denkt ist dein Freund._

_ Jimaine mouthed the words silently as the ghost woman, Mystique, traced out the words. In English, they meant "I am Mystique. I come with a warning. Beware the Devil you think is your friend."  
_

_ ,,Was meinst das?" 'What does that mean?' Jimaine asked. Mystique shook her head as the windows blew open and the flour was whipped off all the surfaces, disappearing as it left its resting place._

_ ,,Nein! Komm zuruck!" 'No! Come back!' Jimaine pleaded. She distinctly felt warm fingertips brush across her cheek, down her neck and through her hair. She went to grab the hand, but there was nothing there._

_ ,,Nein, bitte, bitte, komm zuruck, Frau . . ." 'No, please, please, come back, woman . . .' Jimaine murmured, her head dropping to her chest and tears fell once more. Through her tear-clouded eyes, Jimaine managed to see a slight white smudge on the floor. She raised a heavy hand to brush the remaining flour smudge off the worn wooden floorboards. Jimaine's fingers brushed at the mark, but it didn't come off. The sorceress wiped her eyes with the side of her hand and peered at the mark. It was a little white heart, right where the ghost had been standing._

_ Jimaine gave a watery giggle and lay on her side, her thumb over the little heart. That night, she fell asleep like that, no dreams gracing her weary mind._

*

Jimaine had stayed in the kitchen over the next few days, hoping Mystique, the ghost woman, would come back, but she never did. The sorceress had tried using her mother's old séance things to contact her or Margali, but it wasn't working. Jimaine's grief had drained and sapped her magical energy.

,,Sollen wir zuruck zu Jimaine gehen?" 'Should we go back to Jimaine?' Kurt asked Stefan as they left their spot in front of the coffeeshop for a less open and public place.

,,Sie hat gesagen dass sie für den Rast seine Leben uns nicht sehen will," 'She said she didn't want to see us for the rest of her life,' Stefan said moodily, jamming his hands into his pockets.

,,Ja," Kurt agreed. His instincts were becoming restless, prodding him to get on with it.

_I'm working on it,_ Kurt consoled himself, _I just need more time to think, to plan . . ._

**Hah! *Pants* Finally finished that chapter! Good god, it didn't want to be written and nobody wanted me to write it, what with the constant interruptions, I couldn't keep my train of thought! Thanks much to 100 Silver Wings and Nightcrawler's Shadow for the reviews. I look forward to what y'all have to say about this chapter!**


	7. Desire

**Disclaimer: standard procedure.**

**A/N: the plot twist shall be explained, all in good time. Oh, and sorry about Jimaine's accent. It's quite thick. She hasn't really learned or spoken English like Kurt, so it only makes sense to make her accent thicker. If you don't get it, try saying it out loud.**

**Desire**

Kitty didn't bother packing her suitcase. Not like she was going on a vacation, anyway. Cyrus, sitting on her bed and now old enough to stumble on his little paws over the thick comforter, mewled at her. Kitty sighed and turned toward the kitten.

"You wanna go too?" she asked. Cyrus mewled at her again. "I don't, like, know, it might be, like, dangerous."

Kitty swore that if Cyrus wasn't a week-and-a-half old kitten and a human, he would have given her a withering look. Kitty reached out a hand to stroke him gently, and smooth the little cowlick of fur he had on the back of his head. It stuck up exactly the same way Kurt's cowlick stuck up. Kitty's stomach flipped slightly at thoughts of Kurt.

The girl was rather annoyed by the fact she had to wait for school to get out to go to Germany after Nightcrawler. She was wasting time. Kurt could already have caused major damage, and Kitty was still here in America, letting him get away with murder.

Kitty, bored and with nothing to do, phased down to the kitchen, one of hers and Kurt's favorite haunts. Just as Kitty was sweeping her hand through the air to check for Milani, the phone rang, making her jump onto the table with surprise.

She approached the phone cautiously, as if it were going to explode at any moment. She picked up the receiver and hesitantly addressed the person on the line.

"Hello?"

"Hallo? Eez zis ze Zavier Eenstitute?" A very, very, heavily accented German voice asked.

"Who's calling?" Kitty asked. She didn't know the voice, but she knew it wasn't Kurt. Kurt didn't have a female voice.

"Ah, zis eez Jimaine Szardos. Kurt's seester."

Kitty fell silent.

"Kurt's . . . sister?"

"Ja. Und you are . . .?"

"Kitty, his friend."

"_Freundin_?" Jimaine asked, astounded. Kitty had no idea what she said.

"Um, I didn't quite understand that,"

"Sorry. _Freundin_ means gerlfriend een German,"

"I am not—" Kitty started to say indignantly, but was cut off.

"Ven ze gerls say zat, eet just proves zat zey are, or zat zey vant to be." Jimaine said levelly. Kitty huffed through the phone.

"So why did you call?"

"I vanted to talk to you about somezing zat happened to me ze ozzer night,"

"You're a sorceress, if I'm, like, right. I'm a mutant, so why would _I_ be able to help you?"

"Just leesten to me. Ze ozzer night, a ghost came to me," Jimaine said, pronouncing the 'h' in 'ghost,' which Kitty found funny. "Und she said zat she vas ze ghost ov a voman named 'Mystique.' I heard Kurt mention zat name a few times ven I came over to ze States. Hvoo his zis Mystique lady?"

"Um, well, that's scary. Mystique, like, can't be dead. No way. She comes to the Brotherhood, like, every few months, but we haven't, like, seen her for a while . . ." Kitty said, rubbing the back of her neck in anxiety.

"Precizely. You have not seen her for a vile. Venn I saw her, she vas on fire. Does zat mean nozing to you?"

"It's 'does that mean something', not – whatever. You said she was, like, on fire?"

"Ja, flames all over her, on her hair und dress, zough her arms und hands vere unmahrked, as zough she held zem clear of ze flames."

"That's really, like, weird. Who would burn Mystique to death . . .?" Kitty mused.

"Ze townspeople. Zey _hasse_ – hate – mutants, zat und zorceressez, like Margali vas – like I am." Jimaine said with bitterness.

"So what was Mystique doing back in Germany?"

"Don't ask me! She appeared to me und said, '_Seien Sie der Teufel du vorsichtig ist dein Freund._' Eet means, 'Beware ze Devil hvoo you zink is your friend.' I don't know vat it means. Do you?"

"Devil? Devil, devil, devil . . . Do you think it could mean, like, demon?" Kitty mused.

"_Dämon_? Vy vould it mean demon? Ze message she vrote said very cleahrly _Teufel_, Devil."

"I said that because Kurt looks like a demon . . ."

"Nein! I know vere you're going mit zis, und Kurt vould never tu—" Jimaine stopped.

"What?"

"Vell, ven Kurt came to me, he said he vould kill all Margali's murders. Zat's vat Mystique's message could mean. Kurt might turn on . . . us?" Jimaine finished slowly.

"If that's what the message said,"

"Ja."

"I have to cut school!" Kitty said quickly. Logan walked into the kitchen and saw Kitty on the phone.

"Half-pint, no way you're cuttin' school!" he growled. "Who's on the line?"

"I'm sorry, Jimaine, someone's interrupting me. I'll get the next flight I can to Munich." Kitty said coldly, more for Logan's benefit than Jimaine's. She hung up the phone and stared at Logan.

"Who's this Jimaine?" That was all he could say. Kitty was ticked.

"_Jimaine_, FYI, is Kurt's _sister_. _Kurt _showed up in town, and said he was going to _kill_ people. _I _am leaving for _Munich_, and _nobody_, not even _you_, is going to stop me." Kitty turned and phased through the wall in a huff, leaving Logan standing slightly bewildered in the kitchen, wondering what he had done to get Kitty so upset. Then it hit him. Kurt was going to kill people?!

"Half-pint! Get back here!" Logan yelled, running out of the kitchen up the stairs to Kitty's room. He pounded on the door, having to wait an agonizing second before Kitty opened the door, feigning surprise.

"Oh hi, Logan,"

"What did you say in the kitchen? About Kurt?"

"Oh, he's angry and he wants to kill people," Kitty said, acting as if this was a lighthearted conversation just to annoy Logan.

"What else did ya say?"

"I'm cutting school and going to Munich to stop him,"

"_And_?"

"Mystique showed up as a ghost to Jimaine and said Kurt would turn on her." This last statement caught Logan in the gut.

"What?" he gasped in disbelief.

"Mystique was burned to death like Margali, and she showed up to Jimaine and gave her a message that said, more or less, that Kurt would turn on her." Kitty started glowering again.

"The _hell_ is that elf up to?!"

**It's a short chapter. If I seem to be shifting my focus or going slightly askew of the main idea, please tell me. I've been wrapped up in other things, and my brain's not really in fanfic mode. Please review, people-who-read-this-other-than-100-Silver-Wings-and-Nightcrawler's-Shadow! (You guys can keep reviewing, please!) I just want new input. **


	8. Predator

**Disclaimer: do I really have to?**

**A/N: Pickin' up the pace, y'all!**

**Predator**

Kitty and Logan had been cleared by the Professor to go to Germany and cut school, in Kitty's case. There was a flight leaving the next morning, but that wasn't good enough for Kitty. Kurt could go wild any moment. They were taking the X-Jet, and the express route.

*

Kurt's mind persisted with the furious itch to avenge:

_When will you go? When will you rip, and tear soft bodies? When will you kill, kill those monsters? How many will you kill? Will you not stop until the village runs with rivers of blood and no man stands? Why don't you strike now?_

The last question wasn't a question so much as a demand. Kurt barely managed to appear more human on the outside, but on the inside, he was an animal, hungry for blood, waiting impatiently for the moon to cloud over and the prey to wander to his grasp.

He'd waited days for this, but something in him had told him it wasn't the right time. That little clock inside him was counting down, hands winding into the red shadows of Kill Hour.

As the hours to dusk wore on and Stefan and Kurt traced the path to Jimaine's house, he grew more agitated, jumping at every noise and glaring at passers-by until, finally, a block from the apartment, he switched off his image inducer. Nobody but Stefan was there to see him, but if there had been people, Kurt couldn't have cared less.

,,Jimaine! Offnet die Tür! Jetzt!" 'Jimaine! Open this door! Now!' Kurt yelled as he hammered on the door. Jimaine opened the door and glared at Kurt with mingled hatred, suspicion and fear.

,,Ich glaube dass ich gesagen dass—" 'I thought I said that—' Jimaine started to say, but was cut off by Kurt pushing past her into the house. He dashed up the staircase, taking the steps three at a time. Jimaine and Stefan ran after him. They found him in his old room, rifling through the drawers in the dusty dresser.

,,Kurt! Was tüst du?" 'Kurt! What are you doing?' Stefan asked, but Kurt looked up with something in his eyes that made Stefan stumble backwards into Jimaine. He pulled a dark bundle, bared his teeth at the siblings, and vanished with a cloud of black smoke.

,,Die Leute war rechts," 'The people were right,' Stefan looked down to Jimaine. ,,Er _ist_ ein Dämon." 'He _is_ a demon.'

*

Logan steered the jet into a landing in a clearing in the forest outside Porthensburg. Just before the jet was about to touch down, though, he jerked sharply on the steering column, causing Kitty to slide off her seat into the wall.

"Half-pint! Get up here!" Logan shouted. Kitty ran to the cockpit and looked out the window, following Logan's line of sight. There was a dark figure at the edge of the clearing. Kitty squinted and gasped. Indigo hair whipping around his face, tail lashing, eyes murderous; it was Kurt. He was wearing a skintight navy shirt and loose black sweatpants that helped his fur with blending into shadows. He bared his teeth at the jet and vanished.

"That's not good," Kitty said softly.

"I'll say. He looks ready to kill someone," Logan said, pushing Kitty into the copilot seat and landing the jet. The two disembarked and looked around for possible signs of where Kurt could have gone, but it was useless. You can't track a teleporter if they don't want to be tracked.

"Logan – sorry, Wolverine, let's go to the town. We might find him there. Or at least, we'll find Jimaine." Kitty suggested. She knew Wolverine's sense of smell would lead them to the town. They were on a mission, so they weren't Kitty and Logan anymore, they were Shadowcat and Wolverine. And Kurt was the enemy.

**Short chapter, I know. Keep reading! I'm just loving typing this almost **_**too**_** much. I agree with what Shadow said on **_**Blood Passion**_** – "I enjoy writing about animalistic Kurt." Ditto, girl!**

**Okay, just to let you guys know, I'm going to a sleepover tomorrow night, straight from school. I won't be able to put Chapter 9 up or write any more, I'm sorry. No netbooks allowed at school. Second I get home, though, I'm posting it!  
**


	9. The Hunt

**Disclaimer: I don't want to write a disclaimer! I want to write a story!**

**A/N: Don't waste time reading this, though I know you, as obedient readers, will.  
**

**The Hunt**

The Festhall was actually quite busy, what with the coming of the Summerfest, and that's where Kurt wanted to be. The Festhall. Kurt teleported up inside the rafters, crouched on one of the thick old oak beams, watching the people going around the hall. He swished his tail and thought. How would it go? Would someone try to escape? Whatever. Kurt didn't care.

,,Heu heu, ich bin Heim," 'Hey hey, I'm home,' Kurt growled, low and dangerous. The growl permeated the hall, echoing off the stone. The people stopped dead and looked around wildly, searching for the speaker.

Kurt swung around the beam and leaped down onto one of the fest tables. The people screamed as he landed, his golden eyes dark and determined. From the edge of his eyes, the gold started darkening. Turning to black and back to a deep, shimmering crimson. His pupils remained pure white.

,,_Es ist der Teufel_!" '_It's the Devil_!' one lady screamed.

Kurt bared his fangs and leapt at her.

*

Shadowcat sprinted after Wolverine, who was barreling toward the small German town of Porthensburg. Everything was quiet and dusk was transitioning to night. The full moon made itself known around the summer leaves of the trees, bathing the path to the town in silver. It was like a postcard when the two X-Men arrived at the edge of the street.

Shadowcat's ears didn't pick it up, but Wolverine's ears did. Terrified screams. The acrid, sharp scent of blood.

"Dammit!" Wolverine shouted, taking off down the street and rounding the corner to the brightly lit and inviting Festhall.

The two burst in and met a gruesome scene: bodies littered the ground. All of them had terrified expressions on their faces. Many of them had their throats ripped out and necks bitten repeated times by sharp, long fangs. Blood flowed in rivers around Shadowcat's and Wolverine's feet. A movement in the opposite corner of the Festhall caught their attention. A young boy, no older than eight, ran out of the shadows.

His eyes were the size of saucers and his mouth was open in a silent scream of horror and agony. He fell to the ground, clutching his throat. Shadowcat ran through all the tables to reach him. She looked down and saw his throat had been ripped clean out. A dark figure, fleet as the wind whipping through the open doors of the Festhall, followed him. It leaped onto the body and fastened sharp fangs on the boy's neck.

Shadowcat loosed a hair-raising, blood-curdling shriek as the figure turned around. Glowing crimson eyes the color of the blood dripping off the fangs met her eyes. The creature that had taken over Kurt opened its mouth and showed off fangs worthy of a tiger. Shadowcat started panting in fear as the creature approached her, tail lashing.

Sharp pain knifed through her head and neck as her world went black.

*

_Eyes open and take in the world around them. Thick woods. In the distance, black smoke billows. Many of the trees are charred, the leaves black. Everything's disorienting. Shaking its heavy head, the entity stands and sways slightly before coming to balance. There's a loud growling behind it and it takes off in fear, weaving through the trees as the ground shakes and the growling gains._

_The entity gallops, and out in its peripheral vision, the black trunks sweep past. The entity is running into the smoke. It begins to get hazy and now several trees have fallen. Some are on fire. _

_,,Kleine Pferd, du sollst nicht rennen," 'Little horse, you shouldn't run,' a low voice speaks close behind the horse. More things are on fire, the crimson and gold of the flames contrasting starkly to the black cinders falling like deathly snow. _

_The horse's hooves tear the ground, lashing out and leaving great gouges where the iron rips the cindered ground as it flies through the ghost forest, ripping and shattering the silence and leaving pure panic in its wake. _

_The horse's breath comes in sharp pants as the stench of smoke fills its nostrils and lungs, its heart beating out a frenzied tattoo. The forest cuts off very suddenly, but the horse keeps galloping out into the plain, littered with fallen, ashen logs. A deserted building stands flaming magnificently out in the distance of this strange world, in shades of black and grey, gilded with the sharp pricks of ruby and gold. _

_The horse wheels around and rears, hooves pawing the air as the awesome heat of the bonfire of the building in the distance envelops it. There's a keening, wailing scream from inside the flames and all of a sudden—_

_**BOOM!**_

The sonic boom shattered Porthensburg and burst Shadowcat's eardrums. She didn't even hear herself scream, but felt the blood on the sides of her head, and the overwhelming, suffocating silence. Fire rained from the sky. She staggered up from her spot, on the cold cobbles of the street, and ran dizzily for cover. A burning post streaked down her back, searing her skin and causing her to fall to her knees, hands over her ears, screaming.

Hands grabbed her shoulders and hauled her up, pushing her to safety. Shadowcat didn't see who or where her savior was taking her, her eyes were clouded with tears of pain. The same hands that rescued her slapped her face, making her blink away tears and look up into the ash-streaked and concerned face of Wolverine.

He said something. Shadowcat didn't hear.

"I can't hear you," she said. Wolverine looked for a second like he would cry. He shook his head, then pointed to his lips.

"_Read – my – lips_." He mouthed. Shadowcat nodded.

"_The – Festhall – blew – up - Kurt – was –inside – the – sonic – boom – deafened – you._" Shadowcat again nodded. Her eyes teared up again as she thought of Kurt. Wolverine whirled around suddenly and a look of fear flitted across his face, to be replaced with a mask of anger. He stood and Shadowcat saw him unsheathe his adamantium claws. He gestured angrily.

The same shadow that had killed the boy in the hall leapt onto Wolverine's chest. He staggered back and stabbed wildly with his claws. Every time he was about to make contact with the shadow's form, it disappeared. The shadow left, and Wolverine swayed on the spot before turning slowly to Kitty. Blood stained the whole front of his uniform and there was a dazed look on his face. His throat was torn out. Shadowcat screamed again, scrambling backwards.

She got up and ran blindly, flying through the streets. Bodies that hadn't been killed by the shadow were now burned and twisted beyond recognition by the explosion. She phased through them, running away from it all. The moon clouded over and the broken town became dark, lit only by the flickering light of the multiple fires. Shadowcat felt a whispering _something_ brush up against her leg and she dashed into the nearest apartment. The apartment was untouched by the explosion, but it was still very dark.

The girl blundered around in the darkness, hitting several things before phasing through everything. She phased right into a closet, and two somebodies – that were still alive.

,,Wer ist da?" 'Who's there?' A male voice asked in German. Shadowcat didn't hear. A hand touched Shadowcat's shoulder.

She shied away from the touch into the wall of the closet.

"Who are you?" Shadowcat asked quickly.

,,Das ist die Mädchen we rich habe umgesprochen! Eh, eh, Kurt's Freundin, ah . . . Kätzchen! Das ist ihr Name! Kätzchen!" 'That's the girl I was talking about! Eh, eh, Kurt's girlfriend, ah . . . Kitty! That's her name! Kitty!' A female German voice said, the speaker hitting the boy on the shoulder excitedly.

"Hello? I can't hear anything," Shadowcat said, putting her arms out and feeling the two people's shoulders.

,,Was? Was sagst sie?" 'What? What's she saying?' the boy asked.

,,Sie sagt dass sie nicht hören konnen, Stefan." 'She's saying that she can't hear, Stefan.' The girl explained.

,,Sie ist hier, so was sollen wir mit ihr tun, Jimaine?" 'She's here, so what should we do with her, Jimaine?' Stefan asked. Jimaine shrugged in the darkness. Shadowcat felt Jimaine shrug and was very confused.

"What's going on?" Shadowcat asked. She didn't hear the Germans reply. Shadowcat sat in the darkness for the longest time with the two, just sitting and wondering what she would hear if she could.

There was a sudden burst of pressure on all three's ears, splitting Kitty's head with the raw pain. The two Germans, Jimaine and Stefan, jumped and pressed into the wall.

,,Heu heu, ich bin Heim," 'Hey hey, I'm home,' the shadow crooned. Jimaine screamed. Kurt bared his fangs at them, but it was lost in the darkness. Shadowcat was slightly aware something bad was happening, but only knew what when sharp fangs pierced her neck. Her scream of bloody murder was never heard by anybody else.

*

Kurt's fangs bit into Shadowcat's neck. The demon dug his teeth in, getting a good grip on the screaming, struggling, slapping girl. Putting up a fight was useless. The demon was so much stronger. As he was bracing himself to rip the girl's throat out, she disappeared. His teeth snapped together with such force, Kurt's head hurt. He snarled in fury and turned on the other warm-bodied, fear-scented people. His animalistic and bloodthirsty mind made no distinction, no discrimination between his family and his enemies.

Stefan was first. He fought bravely, Kurt thought, but in the end, Kurt took his life. Stefan's corpse slumped against the wall of the closet, and Jimaine, terrified nearly to death, tried to repel Kurt with magic. His bloodlust broke her charm easily, and he fastened his canines into her soft neck, oblivious to her screams of agony and terror. She rained blows with her fists on his head and neck, but he felt nothing but the hot, tangy taste of blood in his mouth.

Jimaine Szardos fell against the wall, eyes staring straight ahead, face frozen in her final moment of absolute horror. Kurt moved on, teleporting out of the closet to kill the girl that had escaped him. As he galloped across the ruined streets, a motion caught his eye. Someone, one poor person who had escaped Kurt's teeth for a few moments, staggered out of the shadows of a wrecked house.

Kurt snarled at them and the figure twirled around to face him. In the dim light of one of the flickers of fire, Kurt caught sight of the barrel of a shotgun aimed at him. He had less than half a second to think to teleport before the trigger was pulled. Milliseconds before the pellets hit the demon's body, it disappeared. The man who shot the gun looked around in amazement. Where was the demon? Kurt reappeared on the man's shoulders and dispatched him quickly. The last townsperson, the last inhabitant of Porthenburg, lay dead under Kurt' feet. His instincts' work was done, so they withdrew to their submissive, subconscious place in Kurt's mind, leaving his thought process standing frailly on its own, the winds of emotion threatening to topple him into insanity at any moment.

"Vat have I done?" Kurt whispered, horrified. Tears cascaded down his blood-caked fur. He spat the vile taste of the blood of so many innocent people out of his mouth. He could remember all the people he killed–oh my God. He had killed–never would he—he didn't. He did. He had killed Stefan and Jimaine. Kurt cried harder, if at all possible. He stumbled blindly through the town, tripping over the bodies and rubble until at last, he teleported to the last place on Earth he could be to himself.

**Wow . . . didn't know I could write that gruesome stuff! I'm starting to cringe just thinking about the pain in real life . . . *shudders!***


	10. The Celestial Mare

**Disclaimer: you're smart enough to figure it out, aren't you?**

**A/N: I'm watching **_**Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix**_** right now, so I'm going to be totally scatterbrained . . . uh, duh, I'm zoning out now . . . uh *drools stupidly*. . .**

**The Celestial Mare**

Shadowcat crawled to the base of the stairs and lay curled there, her hands clutching the hideous neck wound and sobbing quietly in the sooty, deaf darkness. She knew Kurt had bitten her, and she knew that Kurt had bitten the other two people in the closet. She knew Kurt had attacked Wolverine, killed that little boy in the Festhall, caused the explosion, and made the streets run with blood. Kurt was a killer. A demon. No denying it.

There are times when humans seem to draw on all their last reserves and something more to keep them clinging to life. This was one such time.

In the dark, suffocating closet, there was a spark of life. Thought dead by both Shadowcat and Kurt, Jimaine stirred and brought her hands to her neck and near screamed again. Her neck was painfully raw and open, and there was rough dried blood around the edges of the wound. Jimaine managed to concentrate enough to just barely heal her neck and scoot over to Stefan's inert form.

,,Stefan . . . Stefan, bitte, aufwachen," 'Stefan . . . Stefan, please, wake up,' Jimaine whispered hoarsely. Jimaine picked up her brother's hand. It was slick with blood and ice cold. Jimaine's head dropped to her chest. She put her fingers on his neck, on an uninjured pulse point. She felt no pulse. Sighing with tears thick in her throat, Jimaine focused her magic on Stefan's wounds and healed them. She felt for a pulse again, but his neck was still.

,,Nein, Kurt! Was hast du tun?" 'No, Kurt! What did you do?' Jimaine half-shouted sadly, the overwhelming sadness sapping all emotion and energy from her voice. Under Jimaine's other hand, Stefan's fingers twitched slightly. His eyelids fluttered and his mouth opened.

,,J-jimai-aine?" Stefan asked weakly. Jimaine cried tears of happiness as she rested her head on his chest, arms wrapped around his shoulders.

,,Du Lebst," 'You're alive,' Jimaine sniffled. Stefan stroked her hair weakly.

,,Ja, ich Lebe," 'Yeah, I'm alive,' Stefan whispered. ,,Nur bei dein Hand," 'Only by your hand.'

The two siblings lay there in the closet in the dark, fearing Kurt would return, but not very much caring, because both of them were alive.

As Jimaine and Stefan huddled in the closet, Shadowcat lay broken at the foot of the stairs, unaware of Wolverine, wounds healed, coming to find her. So far, he had checked every apartment for her, then realized she could follow her scent trail. He finally arrived at number 6, and pushed open the door. There were traces of Kurt's scent here. And huge, huge amounts of blood. Shadowcat lay on the ground in a small ball.

"Kitty!" Wolverine yelled. Shadowcat didn't hear anything. She kept rocking slightly and moaning quietly. He reached out and touched her shoulder lightly. She leaped up and pressed herself into the wall, expecting to see Kurt standing there, back to finish the job. Instead, she saw Wolverine. He had a large amount of dried blood down his front, but was otherwise unharmed.

"Logan?" Shadowcat asked hesitantly. The noise made her throat burn like _fire_. She took one hand off her throat and pointed to her ear.

"_Mission – is – over_." Logan mouthed. Kitty nodded. "_We – have – to – find – Kurt_."

Kitty thought for a moment. Then she shook her head quickly.

"_Why_?"

"He bit me," Kitty rasped, facing the pain.

"_Let – me – see_," Logan mouthed, pulling Kitty's hands away. Kurt's upper canine teeth had put deep puncture wounds in the muscles of Kitty's neck, but his bottom ones had put grazes in her windpipe. That would be what was causing her pain.

"_We're – going – to – go – find – him_." Logan mimed determinedly. Kitty looked hesitant, but nodded reluctantly. Before he opened the door and stepped out into the night again, Logan sniffed the air, pausing and leaning toward the source of the scent. He opened the closet and saw the two Germans there.

"Who're you?" he asked. Stefan looked to Jimaine.

"I am Jimaine," Jimaine said. Logan looked at her, then back to Kitty.

"_Is – this – that – Jimaine – girl – you – were – talking – to – on – the – phone_?" Logan mouthed. Kitty stepped forward and looked closely at Jimaine's face. Despite the dried blood on her face and in her hair, Kitty recognized Jimaine from the time long ago when Kurt had introduced them. She nodded.

"Kurt's sister?" Logan said, cocking an eyebrow. Jimaine nodded, using the wall to stand shakily. Logan took in her and Stefan's bloody necks. "He got to you?"

"Ja. Kurt deedn't reelize eet vas us," Jimaine explained. She put out her hand and helped Stefan stand. He was much taller than Jimaine, so he was easily able to lean on her shoulder.

"We're goin' to find Kurt now." Logan declared, walking down the hall to the door. He didn't realize nobody was following. When he finally _did_ look back, though, he saw Jimaine using the last reserves of her strength to heal Kitty's neck.

"Um, how do you say it, _dankeh shon_?" Kitty stuttered, making a brave stab at the sort of German she had heard Kurt speak. Jimaine smiled, a tinge of tiredness on her features.

"Come on," Logan prompted impatiently. The three started coming down the hallway after Logan. Logan, who was following his nose on a vague trace of a scent, led the group through the dark, sooty, cindered streets of Porthensburg.

He reached the place where the old scent of Kurt lingered. The elf had teleported. Question was, where to?

"Where did Kurt like to hang out when he lived here?" Logan asked Jimaine suddenly. She thought for a moment, then replied.

"Zere's a cave, about halv a mile outzide ze town. He alvays used to go zere ven people vould teaze heem." Jimaine replied. Logan nodded.

"Take us there."

*

The four arrived at Kurt's cave minutes later, but Stefan was too weak from the walk there. Kurt had attacked him the worst. Jimaine propped her brother against a tree and stayed by his side. Logan stayed with Jimaine and Stefan. Kitty was supposed to, but she had other ideas.

"Don't walk away, Half-Pint!" Logan cautioned. Kitty looked to the river the flowed silently down the cliffside near where they were. It cascaded in a waterfall into a pool that was oddly quiet. Just behind the waterfall, there was the entrance to a cave.

While Logan was looking elsewhere, Kitty started off towards a small path that led to the entrance. Kitty climbed it and saw the beautiful scene inside. There was a perfectly round cave, with a glimmering, glowing aqua pool in the middle. There was a small ledge around the outside of the pool, where Kitty could see impressions of Kurt's feet.

The cave itself seemed to glow from the rock, and the pool in the middle was not crystal clear, but clouded with silver. The full moon had freed itself of its cloudy shield and was shining, distorted and dripping, through the waterfall. It was a place of magic; a place of immense healing magic, Kitty could sense.

In the most shadowed part of the cavern, a small, dark, condensed shadow perched on the ledge, seemingly looking into the smoothly undulating surface of the pool. Kitty looked up around the domed ceiling and saw the rippling, tranquil patterns of the water on the white stone. The waterfall blocking the entrance didn't make a sound in this cave, so Kitty could easily hear the shadow's cries.

"Kurt?" Kitty whispered hesitantly. Her voice echoed slightly. The shadow looked up. Kurt's eyes, no longer the frightening crimson, were enough to break Kitty's heart. Filled with tears and remorse, they begged for forgiveness.

"Oh, Kurt," Kitty said, starting to come nearer along the ledge.

"No, Kätzchen! Don't come any nearer," Kurt pleaded. Kitty kept padding along the edge. Closer up, she could see that Kurt had been crying, and his fur was matted with blood and spiked with tears. He opened his mouth in horror at how close Kitty was, and Kitty saw that his fangs had bloodstains on them.

"You won't hurt me, Kurt," Kitty said. In the movies, this was the line all the girls said to their dangerous boyfriends. It usually worked. But Kitty wasn't in a movie. Kurt stood, suddenly much, much taller than Kitty. He glowered down on her, his gold eyes darkening. However, his instincts weren't taking over. His emotions were.

"How do you know zat, Kätzchen? How do you know zat I von't turn on you in vone second and bite your zroat out a zecond time? Huh? _How do you know_, Kätzchen?!" Kurt shouted, his voice ringing in Kitty's ears. He grabbed Kitty's neck suddenly, squeezing her throat tightly. Kitty choked and grabbed at his hands, but his eyes were hard and determined.

"So I'm not going to hurt you, eh?" Kurt asked, his voice as hard as his eyes. He let Kitty go suddenly, and she fell, coughing, to the ground and almost rolled into the pool. Kurt stood, looking down on her. As she stood, though, he seemed to deflate slightly, his eyes softening.

"Kurt, I know you're in there. Just please, throw off whatever's controlling you and come out. Come back to me, Kurt. I've been wanting you, I've been pining for you. I can't live without you." Kitty said, her voice thick with tears. Kurt gazed into her eyes, internal battle raging. Would he follow Kitty's words and throw off the emotions, or would he ignore her and sink back into himself?

"Oh Kätzchen! I'm so zorry zat I hurt you! I keeled all zoze people, oh ze blood, ze taste I vill never forget . . . Mein Gott, ich bin ein Mörder! Jimaine und Stefan, und Margali, I just keel people! I'm a real Dämon now, oh Gott, Kätzchen," Kurt sobbed, throwing his arms around Kitty and embracing her tightly. Kitty patted his back comfortingly and found herself crying into Kurt's shoulder, especially at the memory of the little boy.

They separated just as three sharp claps echoed.

"Oh bravo, Kurt. So touching. Kitty, you're such a good girlfriend. Shame you couldn't have helped me. Then you wouldn't have to see this," Kitty wheeled around and saw nothing. Then, a figure on the other side of the pool rippled into sight. The blunt haircut, dark eyes, slender figure, it was Milani. She was standing on the ledge in a white blouse and black skirt and heels. Who did she think she was? How did she get here? What was she doing?

Kurt growled at her. Milani ignored this.

"If you're wondering how and why I'm here, Kitty, let me explain. I've been working for Magneto for years. Undercover at so many different high schools, dear Lord are you children stupid! I'm actually twenty eight, little Kitty. Magneto sent me all over the country, looking for that one boy, Kurt. When I'd finally found him at the Xavier Institute, all my hard work was rewarded!

"Then he left. Magneto was _not_ happy. He told me to become friends with you, to push you very gently and make you tell me where Kurt had gone. I hitched a ride here and tried to kill Kurt so many times, and one time, you got in the way, _Kitty_. That pipe to the head was intended for Kurt. You see, Magneto has some unfinished business with Kurt. _Mystique_," Milani spat the name like poison, "had to come barging in, right in the middle of his experiment. Kurt should have been dead and gone at this point, a long time ago. That's why I'm here."

From the waistline of her skirt, Milani pulled a .22 Magnum pistol. She aimed it at Kurt and cocked it, smiling horribly.

"This'll all be over in just a second," she grinned. Kitty was paralyzed in fear.

It all happened so fast. One heartbeat, Milani stood with the pistol aimed at Kurt. The next heartbeat, Kurt lay crumpled on the ledge.

_A shot rings out_

_Across the lake,_

_Bringer of Death _

_In that quiet place._

Kitty screamed and ran to Kurt, it seemed, in slow motion as Milani grinned and turned on her heel, fading to invisibility as the clicking of her heels on the stone faded. When Kitty reached Kurt, it was hard to tell who was more upset: Kitty, tears streaming down her cheeks, or Kurt, shot in the gut.

She knelt down by his side, in the pool of rapidly spreading blood. Kitty cradled Kurt's head in her lap, crying. Kurt looked up at her, knowing he was going to die. He had one last thing to say.

"Kätzchen," he gasped. Kitty's lip trembled. "you've got to go on vizout me. _Ich leibe dich_."

His eyes closed and his chest stopped moving. Kitty bent over his head, stroking the tears and blood out of his fur, smoothing his hair, all the while, moaning and crying with grief.

Very gradually, a gentle noise reached Kurt's dead, unhearing ears. It wasn't the waterfall, but something he had never heard, yet knew quite well. Soft, hushed hoofbeats. A figure crossed in front of the distorted moon through the waterfall, which parted as if an invisible rock stopped the water from flowing in the middle. On the horizon, a shimmering, silvery-blue and black figure appeared.

It grew larger and more colored as it came closer to the waterfall, going from silvery-blue to rainbow as Kurt's closed eyes picked out more details. He would have gasped if he had breath. Kitty was still cradling his head and crying, but at this creature, this moon-animal, came closer, Kurt was able to move. He stood and looked around. At his feet lay his body, the bullet wound in his side, Kitty mourning.

The creature, a shimmering mare, a female horse, was cantering over thin air. From the places where her hooves struck the air, shining stars appeared, each a different color. When the mare's feet touched the white stone of the cave floor, sparks flew. When her hooves hit the water, ripples spread.

Kitty gasped. The water was rippling as if something stood on it. What was happening? The waterfall was parted and stars hung in the air, suspended on a clear path from the moon. There were spirits at work!

The mare slowed to a halt by Kurt and he took in all her details. Her deep, shining, ebony black coat, as neverending and unfathomable as the space and stardust she was born from, was glossy and portrayed the smooth muscles on her back and neck. Her mane and tail were made of pure gold, her mane long and silky smooth, her tail brushing the water. She had gold feathers [1] around her legs that rippled every time she took a step. Her eyes were understanding and welcoming, her face kind.

The Celestial Mare was not built as a tall Thoroughbred would be, with slender limbs and imperious carriage, but with all the sturdy unshakability and kindness of a Haflinger, although she had the stature of a Welsh. A soft, rainbow glow emanated from her body and there was a sweet, familiar smell like warm, comforting, vanilla about her.

Kurt's spirit, separate from his dead body, reached out a hand and placed it on the mare's shoulder. The mare nickered softly and Kurt knew what he had to do. He swung up onto the mare's broad back and entwined his hands in her silken mane. The bent her neck and touched her warm, velvet muzzle to his foot before turning around and beginning to canter off, back over the path of stars she had paved.

The motion of the Celestial Mare's canter was smooth and easy to sit, like a rocking chair. It was incredibly fast, though, and Kurt only had a few seconds to look back and take one final glance at his poor Kätzchen in the cave.

*

The Celestial Mare rose quickly over the treetops of Germany, her hooves silent on the stars and air, her mane blowing gently around Kurt, making him sure he wouldn't fall from her back. She was a sweet mare, and that was why Deity had chosen her for this painful task. The mare knew her job well: comfort the poor souls, and take them to Dreamland.

Kurt knew none of this, but knew that he was scared, and pained, as the Celestial Mare broke a gallop smoothly out of the atmosphere. Kurt was going to heaven.

**This is NOT the end of the story! I dunno about this chapter . . . tell me what **_**you**_** think! I can go back and revise, you do know . . .**

**[1] Feathers are the long, silky hair around draft horse's hooves. Some pony breeds have small feathers, but feathers usually only appear on coldbloods and warmbloods. They're not feathers, like from a bird, people!  
**


	11. Dreamland

**Disclaimer: I-ay on't-day own-ay he-tay X-Men-ay. Didya get that?**

**A/N: I'm listening to **_**Dreamscape**_**, **_**Holy Ghost**_**, and **_**Trinity**_** by 009 Sound System as I write this. It seemed appropriate. **

**A/N2: Sorry for the wait, y'all. I didn't really have the spirit to write the next few chapters after I posted ch. 10, so I waited until I had enough motivation and inspiration to write a half-decent piece. **

**A/N3: One last author's note before I let you read on with the 11****th**** chapter: I'm going skiing tomorrow, so I feel real regret in saying that chapter 12 will be delayed, and I feel so, so, so sorry, I really do. :*(**

**Dreamland**

As Kurt was taken on the mare's back to a distant destination, he felt a momentary surge of joy as the stars of space flew past him, the mare's mane in his face. He smiled as a sound reached his ears – music. It was fast and bold, flying along with the mare. The notes dipped down and rocketed back up, creating streaks of light; and as the music reached its crescendo, Kurt whooped and let his hands out of the mare's mane, raising them above his head and smiling madly, feeling the joy of flight through such a beautiful space world.

The mare's gallop extended and picked up and the stars became mere streaks of light, and Kurt quickly grabbed the mare's mane again, his moments of happiness forcing all thoughts and realizations of death out of his mind – at least, for the moment. The mare's extended steps started to slow and she nickered and bent her neck to nuzzle Kurt's foot again as her destination neared.

The Celestial Mare was taking care to step on the existing stars, now that she was out of the Earth's air, she couldn't make her own stars. If she misplaced one foot, one hoof not on a star, she and her rider, the soul, would fall through space for eternity, unable to regain balance or footholds until they fell into a blackhole. Both the Celestial Mare and the soul riding her could not be killed – the mare had been imbued with magic from Deity, and souls couldn't die again.

Kurt looked up at the figure looming in front of them. It was the moon. The Mare took a flying leap off of the stars and landed smoothly on the dusty surface, kicking up white powder, but leaving no hoofprints. She took off at a gentle, paced canter, and Kurt thought he saw the footprints of the astronauts a couple times.

Now that he had a point of reference, he could see that the Mare, though only cantering, was going incredibly fast. Kurt dug his hands into the Mare's mane and pressed his face into the silky hair, afraid of falling off. In response, the Mare nickered gently to reassure him. A few minutes of cantering brought the two across the wide, dusty plains and _mare_s [1] of the moon.

One of the spirits, chosen by Deity, was standing guard at the lip of the Crater, saw the Celestial Mare approaching. He knew the sight of the ebony mare, cantering across the moon, her backdrop the cloud-swirled Earth well. The Mare dropped to a smooth but bouncy trot as she neared the Crater. She dropped to a quick, short-strided, knee-and-hock snapping [2] walk. The spirit-guard nodded to the Mare, who dipped her head and brushed her muzzle along his cheek. He took a quick look at Kurt and jumped slightly.

What was that demon doing on the Mare's back?! The guard couldn't do much about it. The Mare chose who she took to Dreamland, and she chose on the basis of if they were a good person in life. The guard supposed this demon-person had been good, though he didn't look a day over seventeen. Such a poor boy . . .

The Mare greeted the guard warmly. She remembered the very day she had carried him off of the battlefield . . . Kurt "greeted" the guard with wide eyes. He was translucent, wearing what seemed to be a red, skirted tunic and a bronze helmet. The light reflecting off the Earth and the Sun lit him eerily, most reflecting off of him, but some passing through him. With a jolt, Kurt realized that was what he must look like.

The Celestial Mare paused at the lip of the Crater, her front legs down into the shadows, back legs on the lip, teetering, as if she were preparing for a high dive. Which she was. Kurt, sensing what she was about to do, leaned back and gripped tightly with his knees and tail, and, if even physically possible, gripped the crest of the Mare's neck more tightly. Her great muscles gathered and tensed, preparing to spring. She would have to jump far enough to clear the Crater walls, into the narrow opening to Dreamland at the bottom of the Crater.

It happened all in slow motion: the Mare's muscles released and both were flying through the air, the Mare stretched gracefully, neck extended, ears pricked, front hooves out, ready to land. Kurt was falling, the Mare pulling him down, down into the shadows, away from Earth, away from the Sun, away from his lost life, away from _Kitty_ . . .

*

_ Kitty was screaming, Kurt was dying. His last words were sweet: "Ich liebe dich," And then he was gone. Kitty cried into his hair, but he wasn't coming back. Logan and Jimaine came sprinting in, taking in the heartbreaking scene before them. Kurt's blood had dripped into the moonstone pool, blossoming across the silver-aqua water in crimson death flowers. Some of Kurt's blood had sprayed on Kitty, and she had drops of ruby across her tear-stained face. _

"Oh mein Gott!" Jimaine screamed. She sprinted over and fell in the pool of blood by Kurt's side. She opened his eyes, which had rolled back into his head. "Nein, nein, NEIN!"

Logan ran over and looked down at the poor elf. Rare tears fell from the crinkled, weather-beaten corners of his eyes, falling on the white stone.

"Who woulda done this to him?" he growled sadly, noting the bullet wound in his side. Jimaine and Kitty were past words – they had taken the express route to raw emotion. Jimaine was feeling the most emotional strain: not only was her mother dead, now her brother had killed the town and blown it up, then gotten shot, and the ghost of a mutant was haunting her. Stefan wasn't aware of Kurt's death yet. He was probably happier not knowing.

"C'mon, we gotta get 'm to the Jet," Logan said roughly, his voice thick, and his long-forgotten Canadian accent coming back. Gently, Logan hoisted Kurt over his shoulder. To hell with the blood. Clothes could be washed. Grieving minds couldn't. Logan took one final glance over his shoulder at the turquoise pool, doused in moonlight, gilded with silver, marked by blood. The blood would stay there forever in memoriam of Kurt.

When the slow, sorrowful succession reached the black-trunked tree where Stefan was propped, they found him either asleep or fainted. Jimaine shook his shoulders, tears splashing down her front, wetting Stefan's bloody shirt. He opened his eyes and took one look at Jimaine's anguished face before asking,

,,Wo ist Kurt?" It didn't take a genius to figure out what Stefan said. Jimaine muttered something unintelligibly and Stefan looked over her shoulder to see Kurt, now in Logan's arms.

,,Oh, mein Gott," Stefan whispered before struggling to stand and go over to Kurt. He ran his fingers over his brother's cold fur and damn near howled like a wounded dog.

Kitty's mind was in a state of uproar – emotions swirled through her head, dominated, as Kurt's thoughts had been, by depression. In the forefront of the pack, though, was emptiness, loneliness, loss, and heartache. She couldn't think, only feel, see, and hear numbly. Kitty wasn't in any state to even remember Milani Ko, and her treachery.

*

After flying through the air for what seemed minutes, Kurt expected vaguely to reach the bottom of the Crater and crash. No crash ever came. Kurt opened his eyes (he had closed them when the Mare leaped) and saw nothing. He heard wind whistling by his ears – wait. He was on the moon, in a vacuum. How did he hear wind? The blackness started giving way to streaks of color, then to a full-blown world of bright hues. The Mare made a grunting noise at the back of her throat, telling Kurt to get ready. He didn't know that was what it meant.

The Mare's outstretched front hooves crashed into the ground, the shock waves rippling up through her body. Her hind feet impacted and her back dropped out from under Kurt, who was barely hanging on with his now-numb knees. The Mare stumbled a bit and took off, flying off through what seemed to be a bright, sunny Greek forum. Kurt started slipping, sliding on the Mare's smooth, silky and consequently slippery dark fur, hanging off her side for a few seconds before the Mare, in full flight, bent her head around and nudged him back up onto her back. She compensated easily and kept her hooves straight, keeping the gallop.

After a few hundred meters, the Mare slowed to a canter, and to a trot. The gallop had been to absorb her momentum landing. The spirits in the forum, ranging from the toga-dressed to the white-haired to the tee-shirt-wearing to the crib-bound, mulled around, used to seeing the Celestial Mare galloping through their midst, but never in such a hurry, and never with such a strange soul. Kurt gazed in wonder as he bounced along on the Mare's back. A new smell met his nostrils: sea salt. The Mare, tired of the slow trot, broke a nice, gentle canter. Kurt rocked back and forth, making sure to keep himself firmly centered on the Mare's back. The grass and stone gave way to sand, which sloped down to the warm, clear sea. The Mare didn't break her stride, but kept cantering.

Kurt expected for a moment to be sprayed with seawater, but wasn't. He looked down and saw the Mare's hooves touching the water and sending little shocks of ripples out into the blue water, but never breaking the surface. Kurt's mouth was an "o" of wonder as the Mare glided over the calm, glassy sea, destination unknown.

Once the forum the Mare had crossed through was only a speck on the horizon and the two were far out at sea, the Mare slowed to a trot again, then down to a walk. Kurt noted her feet were sinking in more than at the canter, but she never fell through. She tossed her head and grunted, nuzzling Kurt's foot, as if to say,

"Get ready,"

Kurt didn't quite understand, but twisted his fists tightly in the Mare's thick mane. She brought up a brisk trot towards a large rock jutting out of the sea, that Kurt could've sworn wasn't there a second ago. He wondered how long and far the Mare had been running. Well, from the Earth to the moon was hundreds of thousands of miles, but the Celestial Mare had crossed that in a matter of minutes. Then there were the planes of the moon, but those too had zipped past. Then the Crater and the jump, and the gallop through the forum and out to sea . . . Where was she taking him?

The spirit of Kurt, his soul, started to feel worried and anxious. The kind mare sensed this and tried to comfort him, but the rock was approaching and she couldn't think about comforting her rider and jumping back through dimensions at the same time. She picked up her trot to a fast canter, accelerating to a hand gallop [3]. Her hooves clattered on the seaweedy, barnacle-encrusted rock. The Mare's iron-hard feet shot sparks hissing into the sea. Kurt felt the familiar bunching of the Mare's muscles and closed his eyes, tensing his whole body. He knew that the Mare's neck must be sore from Kurt pulling on her mane so much, but it was the only way to stay on.

The Celestial Mare released her muscles, springing high into the air, four feet, ten feet, fifteen feet, farther than any horse could ever leap, then her hooves rang on a solid object. It was a perfectly executed jump with a badly executed landing. She scrambled to gain footing on the steep, invisible surface, scrabbling with her back legs. Kurt was dragging her down, slipping back, pulling on her mane, jerking her head up and taking the pulling power out of her head, neck, and shoulders. She cried in confusion and fear as one of her back legs slipped off. Kurt was still hanging on to her mane, pulling, going to flip her backwards.

The Mare was slipping out beneath Kurt, scrabbling wildly, trying to gain footing on a surface none but she could see, Kurt was doing his best to hold on, but he was yanking the Mare off whatever surface she was catching on. His mind was surging. The thought was quick and not thought through. He made to get off the Mare's back, but it made her cry out harshly. Kurt was surprised by the Mare's outburst, and let go of her mane for a second. That was all she needed. The Mare dropped her head and strained her muscular shoulders, regaining her hind foot and plowing ahead, Kurt clinging to her withers.

Kurt tried to not hinder the Mare further as she labored up the slope that Kurt could not see, her shoulders and haunches working like steam pistons, her breath coming in sharp snorts. Kurt patted her neck, and between snorts, the Mare nickered. She hadn't come up the Path of Ghosts in so long. Kurt watched as the Mare transcended the clouds hanging over the blue, sun-filled sky of the odd world, and the bright azure faded once again to black. Dotted with tiny pinpricks of silver, there was a purple arm of stars and dust reaching across in a swirling pattern, punctuated by a glowing rose-peach-and-silver moon. It was more beautiful than the galaxies Kurt had seen in Astronomy class.

The Mare breathed a sigh of relief as she hit the flat part of the Path of Ghosts. She had to jump again, but flying was better than climbing. She halted on the little flat plateau, her flanks heaving. Though anybody might have contributed the Mare's stockiness to breeding, but she was actually a little chubby. Her fur, while naturally bright and smooth, was damp with a thin sheen of sweat. Kurt rubbed circles on her neck, and she dropped her head again to let her nose hang a few inches from the Path of Ghosts. Her tail swished lazily, and Kurt brushed his across her flank and rump in response. She bent her neck around again and lipped at Kurt's knee. Kurt went to stroke her velveteen nose, but the second she saw his hand coming towards her face, she jerked her head away quickly with a small squeal.

She shook herself, nearly dislodging Kurt, and stretched before making the longest jump she ever made. The Celestial Mare backed up a step and sighed. Her muscles fired in unison and she took off, flying over the stars that she couldn't touch, soaring through the blackness, Her mane and tail floating eerily with no wind to blow them back. The Mare, just to see what it felt like, paddled her legs instead of holding them stiff. Kurt laughed and the Mare whinnied at the odd feeling of drifting through space with a soul on her back, paddling her neat little silver hooves. She stopped paddling suddenly, stretching her legs out solemnly, nodding her head to alert Kurt to sober up as they entered Deity's aura.

The peachy moon drifted closer, and just like when the Mare touched down on dusty Earth-moon, she landed weightlessly with no complications, setting off across the mirror-shiny plane of Deity's Moon. There was a mountain not far ahead, and that was where the Mare was headed.

Kurt was going to Deity, to the God, to the Goddess, to _meet his maker_.

*

*

**There's my gorgeous chapter 11! Please review and comment on the long-awaited writings of the great Iris Musicia! ;) **

**[1] **_**Mare**_** is Latin for "sea," because the large, dark, flat patches of the moon's surface do look like seas from a distance. Just thought you'd like to know.**

**[2] Knee-and-hock snapping: this isn't, like, breaking the horse's legs, it's where the horse moves its knees and hocks very sharply and quickly. This is natural for some breeds, like the Hackney, Hackney Pony, Friesian, and Tennessee Walking Horse. In other breeds, it's taught as a "show walk." Even if a horse or pony (there's a difference – horses are above 15 hands, ponies are below that, but that's not all) isn't one of those breeds, they may snap their knees and hocks naturally.**

**[3] Hand gallop: a hand gallop is like a very fast canter. Hand gallop is also called "hunt canter." It's really fun to ride, especially on a foxhunt. :)**


	12. The Funeral

**Disclaimer: Ya know, **_**whatever**_**! *tosses hands up in exasperation and walks out***

**A/N: I am so sorry that I kept you guys waiting for so long. I had a brain trip: it walked out on me and I had no heart to write any of my stories, then when it came back, I got writers' block . . . **

**The Funeral**

The flight home to New Jersey had been agonizing, to say the least. Jimaine, with amazing control and level-headedness, sat in the seat nearest the front, sobbing and sniffling quietly. She was a complete wreck, but at least she was better than Kitty. Years of experience told her that it would be better to move on as soon as possible, and that, God willing, she could hold a séance to contact Kurt. Kurt's body had been laid at the back of the jet, Kitty sitting on the ground next to him. She had closed his eyes – she couldn't bear to see those eyes of his, once bright and gold in life, now dull and flat orange in death.

The jet touched down with a gentle bump, and Kitty wiped her tears away as Stefan stood and limped to the back of the jet, bending down to pick Kurt's body up. Kitty rose shakily and followed him, her eyes downcast. Jimaine stood and followed them out. Logan brought up the rear. The hangar was quiet, except for the girls' echoing sobs. Kitty's vision was so blurred with tears, she could just barely make out the lurching shape of Stefan in front of her.

When they got out of the hangar into the dark, quiet basement halls, they encountered nobody, and Jimaine stopped sobbing. She had to get her bearings. Stefan continued to carry Kurt. Where he was going, he had no idea. He just kept walking, hearing Kitty, Jimaine, and Logan following behind.

"There's an elevator up ahead, kid. Take it to the lobby." Logan instructed gruffly. Stefan didn't understand, so Jimaine stepped in.

,,Nimm das Aufzug nach oben," she said quietly. Stefan nodded and Kitty punched the button up when they reached the elevator doors. They dinged open and the four stepped inside. When the doors dinged open again, at the lobby, Kitty had fallen silent. It seemed she had run out of tears to cry, and her mind was numb. Jimaine had felt that a while ago, and vaguely decided it was better to be numb than to feel.

Kitty heard the clicking of heels in one of the hallways and turned to see Ororo walking down the hall in her uniform, shuffling through a stack of letters, muttering to herself.

"Storm?" Kitty mumbled. Ororo looked up and saw Kitty and Logan, but not Stefan and Jimaine.

"How did your mission go? Did you find Kurt in t—ime . . .?" Ororo broke off in the middle of 'time' when Stefan and Jimaine stepped out from behind Logan. Her eyes tracked to Kurt's limp and dull form in Stefan's arms. He had been dead hours now, and his fur was loosing its shine, skin marbling with pooling blood. The wound in his side was still open, but not bleeding. It hadn't had time to heal, but you could still clearly see Kurt's innards.

"Oh dear Lord, dear Lord," Ororo whispered, terrified, shocked, and upset. "We have to get Charles . . ."

Ororo practically ran through the halls and lobby to the Professor's study, the four from Germany trailing behind. When they came into the Professor's study, he sat behind his desk, expression grim.

"What happened?" he asked, the question directed mostly at Logan. "Who are these people?"

"The elf was shot. I dunno who they are." Logan muttered, falling into one of the armchairs at the side of the room.

"I'm Kurt's seester, Jimaine, und zis is Stefan, Kurt's brozzer." Jimaine choked out, before following Logan's suit to fall into a chair, leaving Stefan standing before the big mahogany desk, holding Kurt awkwardly. Kitty was sitting cross-legged by the door, eyes fixed on the ceiling, fingers trailing in little patterns across the carpet. She had withdrawn into herself a long time ago.

"Logan, what happened to Kurt?" the Professor asked again, voice a little forceful. He had to be firm to get answers out of them when they were like this. Logan shook his head and jerked his chin towards Kitty.

"Kitty," the Professor began quietly, changing tack at the speed of sound. He rolled out from behind his desk over to Kitty, pausing at Stefan to gesture and let him know he could put Kurt's body down on the desk. Stefan did so and limped over to the chair beside Jimaine, opposite Ororo. When the Professor rolled up to Kitty, she didn't seem to notice.

"Kitty. What happened to Kurt?" Professor X asked softly. Kitty flinched, but otherwise gave no indication she had heard him. The Professor sighed and put his fingers to his temples, having to reach Kitty telepathically.

Her mind, strangely enough, was completely blank. Unlike Kurt's had been, dark with lots of emotion, Kitty's mind was blank, white, sterile, and devoid of feeling or emotion. Only a small corner processed things like her hands and what her eyes and ears were taking in.

_Kitty_, the Professor tried telepathically. His mental voice echoed. _Kitty_.

_What?_ Kitty replied, her thought flat.

_What happened to Kurt?_

_I don't want to think about it._

_Let me go through your memories._ The Professor started going through Kitty's recent memories, tucked away in another corner. There were pain-filled memories of the jet, heart-breaking memories of recent death . . . he was getting closer . . . memories with unexplainable, indescribable emotions of extreme agony, distraught, shock; a white cave with a pool . . .

The Professor withdrew himself from Kitty's frighteningly barren mind and faced the other people with shaking hands. What he had seen was beyond words. Just astounding . . . horrifying, heart-shattering, stunning.

"I know who shot Kurt and why," the Professor said quietly, still running over the memories in his mind. He didn't remember a girl named Milani ever enrolling here, so why was she in Kitty's memories as a traitor? Treason meant Milani had been Kitty's friend, but how did she get into the Institute? Invisibility. In her monologue, Milani said that Magneto had "hired" her to take out Kurt.

The Professor had the third person godlike perspective on the whole situation, and the root of the problem was Magneto. Always Magneto. He altered Kurt with his genetic tests; he put Milani in the Institute to take Kurt out. He probably told the townspeople Margali was a sorceress so they would kill her, making Kurt come to Germany. Why had Magneto wanted Kurt to come to Germany? And why was Mystique dead? When did she die?

This was too much for even Professor X's great mind. There was a third hand in this, someone with great power to make things work out, someone more powerful than Magneto. Someone with strong motives. A mutant, perhaps? Or maybe a human, like Bolivar Trask. He _had_ arranged the Sentinel robot disaster. So many questions swirled through the Professor's head, none with answers.

*

_The Mare touched down on the peachy moon and started cantering once more, but unlike the dusty Earth-moon, Deity's moon was mirror-shiny and not a speck of dust._

Kurt was starting to get into this riding thing, moving with the Mare's motion, he found it was easier to grip and stay. Through his whole ride, in Dreamland, up the Path of Ghosts, across the galaxies, transcending dimensions, Kurt hadn't thought one bit about death or the life he left behind. Those thoughts had been forced out of his head.

The mountain on the moon drew nearer, and the Mare arched her neck imperiously and pulled to a halt at the foot. She shook her golden mane and stomped her feathered feet, as if giving a signal. She nickered and nudged Kurt's foot, and he stuck on to her back as she put her forefeet on the steep mountain slope.

The Mare backed up fifteen feet and shot off at a gallop, powering up the sheer face for several feet to a flat plateau. A small, winding path led up the mountain. Kurt screwed his hands tighter into the Mare's mane as he looked over the edge of the mountain path and saw the ground suddenly hundreds of feet below. The path was thin and rough, but the Mare knew it well. There was a time, when she was younger, that she would come up the Path of Ghosts to Deity's moon three times a day. That was when people were different. Now they all went straight to Dreamland.

*

"Charles, who killed Kurt?" Ororo asked when he rolled away from Kitty.

"A student that used to be here. Milani Ko." He answered shortly.

"Milani . . . Ko? I don't remember her." Ororo said, confused.

"Of course you don't. Nobody does, except for Kitty and perhaps the other few students she interacted with. None of the instructors and older students knew she was here." The Professor said, coming behind his desk again and steepling his fingers, examining Kurt's blank face over his hands.

"Why was she here? How did she go that long without us knowing?" Ororo questioned, standing up from her chair and coming over to the desk.

"She had the power of invisibility. She must've worked hard to keep herself from us, but make herself appear normal to Kitty. Kitty's memories of Milani are that of a sister and good friend, completely normal. Her "betrayal" by working for Magneto and killing Kurt have come as a huge shock for Kitty. She's locked herself down, mind blank, as a coping mechanism. She'll deal with it when she's ready." The Professor said, still watching Kurt's face, as if for a sign of life, maybe his eye flickering, his fur moving with his breath. No such thing would ever happen.

"That's . . ." Ororo trailed off.

"So what're we gonna do with the Elf?" Logan asked quietly from his chair. The Professor looked up at him, frowning in thought.

"There's only one thing _to_ do, Logan. We hold a funeral."

*

The Mare kept climbing the path, and Kurt settled to watch the ground go by, occasionally looking up to see where they were going, but the path curved so much it was impossible. The stone of the mountain and the moon was a silvery-gold peach color, which seemed to glow and contrasted magnificently with the boundless ebony heavens, sprinkled generously with stars and moons, and the great purple dust galaxy stretching over the moon.

Kurt got bored soon and took this time to take stock of himself. He untwisted one of his hands from the Mare's gold mane and held it up. It was translucent, so Kurt could see blurred, vague shapes of the moons and stars through it, but he definitely had color.

_Like blue wax paper_, Kurt thought with a touch of his old humor. If he was translucent, just a soul, he could live in space like this indefinitely, with no air or gravity. The Mare certainly wasn't a soul, she was solid as the peach stone under her hooves, yet how could she live with no oxygen? How could she fly through space like nothing, and leap through dimensional barriers as easily as Kurt would teleport? Why was she darker than death yet sweeter than a foal? The aura around her, the floating gold mane and tail and feathers, the silver hooves; they weren't something you'd see on a normal horse.

The soul of Kurt had so many questions, and only hoped that wherever he was going by the Mare could answer the questions.

The Celestial Mare reached the summit of the mountain and the end of the path. Kurt looked around, not knowing what to expect.

The mountain was flat on top, almost as if somebody had cut it off. There was nothing there. It was a mile around in every direction, a huge area, but completely devoid of anything. No dust, no reflections on the stone, no hoofprints, no gods, no nothing.

"Was tun wir hier? What are we doing here?" Kurt wondered aloud. He jumped slightly at the sound of his voice, and the Mare nickered. She struck one forefoot against the glossy plain once, twice, three times. She tossed her head suddenly, catching Kurt off-guard so he pitched forward into her mane and was frozen there, inhaling the floral scent of her fur for a moment before he was released to look up.

Kurt gasped in shock.

*

Two days later, funeral arrangements were made and the residents in the mansion informed. Kurt's room was cleaned out, his clothes thrown out, his pictures and things locked away in a trunk in the basement, but his uniform kept in a small box to preserve his memory. Through all this, Kitty was silent, her mind still blank and numb. She didn't want to thaw and feel the pain.

On Jimaine and Stefan's request, Kurt was cremated; his ashes kept in a glazed blue pottery urn until the funeral.

The funeral itself was supposed to be quiet and small, with no body to bury, they were really just commemorating the little white stone marker for Kurt and scattering his ashes. The funeral was at five o'clock, leaving the residents of the mansion one hour to get ready.

Things were surreal for Kitty. She floated around the house, looking but not seeing, hearing but not listening, touching but not feeling. She went into the rec. room, because it was empty, and lay down on the couch. Evan still hadn't taken his poster down. Kitty sat up and scooted to the end of the couch, where there was an end table.

Kitty fished around for her laptop in the table drawer, and pulled it out, hoping to email her parents. At that exact moment she started pressing keys, the poster fell off the ceiling and landed on her head.

"EVAN!"

"What?" Evan shouted from the kitchen. Kitty screamed his name again and he appeared in the doorway less than a minute later. Kitty was holding the poster in her fist, expression livid. Evan swallowed nervously. The first time Kitty shows emotion for three days and she's in a rage worthy of Logan. Not good.

"Take your poster and don't bother me," Kitty said venomously, thrusting the poster at Evan. "I'm going back to my room."

Back in her room, Kitty was thinking about things.

_When I'm angry, K — not saying his name. When I'm angry, his loss doesn't hurt as much,_ she mused. Maybe if she was angry more often, she'd never really feel the pain. Perhaps that was why Logan was always a little angry. He outlived his family and old friends, so he was still hurting on the inside. He was angry to cope. Suddenly, Kitty felt closer to the gruff instructor.

So Kitty stormed around her room, being angry, for the rest of the time until the clock downstairs in the lobby struck five and the Professor's sad thought rang in their minds.

_Please meet downstairs at the back door for Kurt's commemorative service._

Kitty huffed and zipped up the back of her black dress and threw on a black velvet shrug, turning to slam her door and stomp down to the back door in her black ballet flats. She hadn't done up her hair, and since it was actually naturally curly, it hung in large, gentle ringlets around her shoulders. However, Kitty was too busy being angry to notice anything else, like the distraught looks on everybody's faces. She thought they didn't care, when in reality, it looked like she didn't care because she was storming around looking angry, as if Kurt's service was something she had to and didn't want to attend.

Jean noticed this and went to talk to Kitty. Contrary to popular belief, Jean and Kurt were actually quite good friends, and Jean was very upset about his death. Nobody in the mansion (other than the few in the Professor's study that night) knew how Kurt had actually died; they just assumed he died in Germany somehow. They were still very upset about it, don't get me wrong.

"Kitty. Can I talk to you for a moment?" Jean came up and asked Kitty, putting her hand on the girl's shoulder. Kitty wheeled around, frowning at Jean.

"Yeah, what?" Kitty said sharply, shrugging Jean's hand off.

"Are you okay? You seem a little . . ." Jean searched for a good word, but was cut off rudely by Kitty.

"Pissed that somebody's bugging me when they should really _leave me alone_?" Kitty hissed, turning on her heel and stalking off. Jean stood there in shock, her hand still out in the air. Scott came forward and took her hand.

"That was weird," he said, looking after Kitty. Jean nodded.

"Not like her. It's almost like she doesn't care about K—" Jean didn't say his name, her throat constricting and tears starting to leak from the corners of her eyes.

"I think it's harder on her because, by what I overheard the Professor saying, she was there when Kurt actually died." Scott said quietly, his eyes starting to water with tears behind his shades.

"I'll ask Professor X about it," Jean sniffled, composing herself. She kept holding Scott's hand, but set off out the door and across the grass to the secluded, shady spot in the woods that Kurt's memorial was being held in.

The light filtering through the leaves overhead dappled the clearing and the white stone marker, and the breeze was blowing softly, whispering things to Kitty. Only the "original" X-Men and the instructors were there, and Jean and Scott were the last to arrive. Kitty was scowling at the marker, her hands curled into fists behind her back.

Everybody had noticed Kitty's sudden, odd change of disposition, but only Jean had confronted her. So far. The small group fell silent as Professor X raised his head, looked at Kurt's marker, and began to speak.

"So everybody, we are gathered here today, not to join people in matrimony, but to mourn the loss of a dear friend and team member, Kurt Otto "Nightcrawler" Wagner, who is deceased on June tenth of this year.

"We will remember him as a valuable asset to the X-Men, a good friend, and exemplary person. He died a young man, fighting, not against an enemy, but himself."

In the trees above, a single mourning dove called, low and sorrowful. Kitty kept up her mask of anger, stepping backwards, further into the shadows, detached from the service. Logan looked up from his feet and saw Kitty standing there, back a ways, hands balled into fists, a murderous scowl on her face. He quietly walked around Scott, Jean, Evan, Ororo, Rogue, Jimaine, Stefan, and the Professor until he came up to Kitty and backed into the shadow next to her.

"What's up with ya, Half-pint?" He asked quietly. Kitty continued to scowl at the marker for several moments before replying.

"When I'm angry, it doesn't hurt as much." Logan sighed. He knew exactly where Kitty was coming from. This was the way he had been when his family passed.

"Ya can't be angry all the time, Kit. I'm speaking from experience: it doesn't work. Ya have to face it, or else it gets worse when ya're angry." Kitty looked up at him, her expression softening a bit.

"How do I deal with the pain?"

"Everybody here's dealin' with it, but I know ya're takin' it the hardest," Logan said gruffly, his Canadian accent becoming pronounced, as it did when he was stressed. "The best way's to not think abou' it, but if ya have ta, then try ta think abou' wha' Kurt would say if he were here. What'd he say, Kit?"

"He'd probably . . . try not to, like, laugh, 'cuz it's a funeral," Kitty began shakily, tears starting to wet her eyes. "Then after the service, he'd, like, go off on his own, come here. But he'd tell me to, like, cheer up and stop crying,"

"Yeah," Logan agreed softly, trying not to cry himself, but staring at the stark white stone of the marker that was so much like the stone he had bled out on, it was impossible.

"I just wish he had kissed me," Kitty sniffed, wiping her cheeks with the hem of her shrug. Logan didn't reply.

The Professor finished speaking, and Ororo came forward to say a few things.

"Kurt was almost like a son to me. I wish he was here to tell us all to stop crying, the Fuzzy Elf is here." Ororo finished with a watery laugh, making the sun cloud over momentarily. Evan stayed where he was, eyes downcast, and mumbled a few words that were truly heartfelt.

"Kurt was my brother, yo. I lost a part of myself today."

Kitty half-expected Scott to mention training, but was glad when he said:

"Kurt was a good person, and a good friend. Never missed a meal, that guy."

Jean didn't say anything, but came forward with a small earthenware dish of clear water with a single cream-white calla lilly blossom floating on the surface. She set it by the marker, right under the inscription:

_KURT OTTO "NIGHTCRAWLER" WAGNER_

_BORN 11/11/1992_

_DIED 6/10/2010_

_LIVED, LOVED, LOST_

As Jean stepped back from the marker, red blossomed across the surface of the water, staining the tips of the lilly's petals bloodred, which faded to pink and finally to white closest to the center of the flower. Kitty started crying in earnest now, the semblance of the red water to the pool of the moonstone cave was too much.

"Kurt was mah brothah. That's all ah'm gonna say." Rouge said stoically, though her mascara was running in dark streaks down her cheeks.

Jimaine nodded and sobbed into Stefan's shoulder, completely losing it. Stefan didn't know a word of English, so he stepped forward in German.

,,Kurt war mein Bruder, mein Freund, und also mein Partner-in-Kriminalität." 'Kurt was my brother, my friend, and my partner in crime.' Stefan managed to smile weakly before bowing his head again and rubbing Jimaine's back comfortingly.

Logan looked at Kitty before sighing and stepping forward.

"The Elf was a great kid. He was a great kid."

Everybody glanced to Kitty expectantly. She took a shuddering breath and stepped forward into the light and wiped her tears away.

"I was there when Milani Ko shot Kurt. The last words he said to me were 'Ich liebe dich.' Those were the, like, sweetest words I'll ever hear in my life." She said quietly, choking on the last word before leaning into Logan's side and bawling.

When Kitty said this, it sent Scott, Jean, Rogue, and Evan into frenzied thought.

_Who's Milani Ko?_

_Kurt was shot?_

_Oh my god!_

The Professor rolled over to Kitty with the blue urn in his hands. He held it out, and Kitty took it gingerly and kissed the top, tears splashing onto the glazed surface, before unscrewing the lid and throwing the ashes into the treetops. Ororo's breeze carried them up and away, sending everybody into fits of crying anew.

_I love you too, Kurt_, Kitty thought despondently.

*

**Good lord, I'm sorry for such a slow update! I . . . you know, that was the one of the hardest pieces of writing I've ever done. I hope you like it. Don't forget to review!**


	13. The Afterlife

**Disclaimer: ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, banana phone . . .**

**A/N: Don't worry, Kurt's journey is ending soon.**

**A/N2: I'm not trying to offend anybody by this chapter, with the celestial beings. I'm Christian, and this is not my religious belief; I thought this was the coolest and most neutral way to do this chapter. Don't flame me if you don't agree with my religion. I won't preach Christianity (well, actually I'm Episcopalian, but whatev.) and stomp on your religion (I have friends who are Wicca and atheist); just don't flame me if you don't like my religion. Peace out and have a good day! ;D**

**A/N3: Last one, I swear, before I quit bugging you: this story now has fanart on deviantart . com! Yeah, it's by me (The author doing fanart. Cheap, I know.), but go to deviantart and search IrisMusicia and behold the Celestial Mare!**

**The Afterlife**

_She tossed her head suddenly, catching Kurt off-guard so he pitched forward into her mane and was frozen there, inhaling the floral scent of her fur for a moment before he was released to look up. _

_Kurt gasped in shock._

Where there had been a shining, barren mountaintop before, stood a magnificent . . . court would be the only word to describe it. There was a large ring of twenty-five-foot stone columns around the edge of the plateau, and the area inside the stark white pillars, brilliant against the black sky, was filled by milling animals of all sorts. The Mare stood shorter than many, and she was the only one with real color. The animals were pearly with faded hints of color, completely silent and not quite touching the moon, as the Mare did, but very solid. They shimmered beautifully, and Kurt found himself mesmerized by the usually fluid cats of prey, but in this realm, they were the pure essence of grace.

The Mare nickered something to Kurt, and he tore his eyes away from the cats, slinking off into the crowd, around antelopes and elephants, dogs, cats, aardvarks, and peacocks. She tossed her head, and between her small, pricked ears, he saw the center of attention.

In the middle of the mountaintop, on a sort of dais, were three magnificent people. Three pillars stood in a row directly behind the people, with the middle pillar and the middle person the tallest. But the people who sat on the dais far outshone all the animals, the moon, and the galaxy.

The trio sat on huge, shining thrones of different colored stone, gazing imperiously out over the court of spirit-animals. There was a commanding presence around them that Kurt had to respect. The middle person, one with a regal look on their face, sitting on a throne of marbled white and black, raised one of their hands, not saying a word, and the whole court of animals fell silent and unanimously turned to face the people. The people to the left and right raised their hands, and the spirit-animals parted so a clear, straight path to the dais.

The Mare started forward, in her snapping, head-bobbing walk. The animals' heads turned slightly as they walked past, creating a ripple that spread out over the mountaintop as Kurt watched. After what seemed like an eternity, the Celestial Mare came to a halt in front of Deity.

"Who ahr you?" Kurt whispered. He regretted it instantly. The eyes of the middle person, Deity, snapped down to look at him, trying to hide himself in the Mare's thick, luxurious gold mane. Deity's eyes were convex mirrors, like liquid silver, or bright, shining opalescent marbles, and despite the lack of pupils, were very piercing.

"Who are _you_?" Deity murmured. Deity's voice was rather emotionless and the question soft, but Deity's voice carried to the whole congregation. Kurt couldn't tell if Deity's voice was that of a man or a woman, but it was hauntingly musical and harmonious; very enchanting.

A whisper of noise ran through the assembled animal spirits. Deity had spoken – an honor It rarely bestowed on a soul.

"Uh, K-kurt W-w-wagner," Kurt stuttered nervously. The Mare wanted so much to console him, to nicker at the back of her throat, make a comforting motion, noise, to tell Kurt to stay strong under Deity's unnerving gaze.

Deity nodded slowly.

"I am Deity. This is God, and this is Goddess." Deity said, Its mirror eyes flicking to the handsome, pale-skinned people to the left and right as It gestured almost lazily with the twist of a hand. God sat in the ashen throne on Deity's left, and had alabaster skin with a proud Roman nose and deep-set, dark eyes, quite contrary to Deity's mirror-eyes. He pressed his pale pink lips together and inclined His head to Kurt, His light blonde-brown curls shaking.

Kurt's eyes roved over God. Through his devout Christian faith, he had heard much about God, about how He was the great redeemer, about how Jesus was His son . . .

The Mare shifted slightly on her feet, popping one hip and cocking her back leg, a stance of rest. Moving his wide-eyed gaze from God to Deity, Kurt noticed that Deity's features weren't completely masculine. They were strong and handsome as God's, yet elegant and smooth as Goddess's, whom Kurt hadn't looked over yet. It was clear, though, that Deity was the "alpha" of the animal gods and goddesses.

From her onyx throne on the right of Deity, Goddess shifted. She had dark, shining brunette locks that waved gently, framing Her gorgeous face. Goddess had large, dark, almond-shaped eyes and full, pink rosebud lips, and a honey-sweet perfume about her. She smiled at Kurt, and the soul felt himself goggle at Goddess, his translucent cheeks purpling with blush. Deity snapped Its fingers, drawing Kurt's attention back to It.

"Um, what-what is this place?" Kurt stammered, glancing around the animals, staring up at Deity with respect, a few looking over at Kurt.

"What is this place? What _is_ this place?" Goddess laughed lightly. "This, dear Kurt, is the Moon Court of Divinity. Do you know why you're here, soul?"

Kurt shook his head, starting to become uneasy in the presence of so many divine beings, especially Goddess, who seemed kind, until she spoke, with a sort of cruel amusement. Then the thought came to Kurt.

"I keeled people?" Kurt guessed quietly. Trickles, ghosts of his memories were playing at the edges of his consciousness.

"Killed my people," God said, a dark look coming over his face. "Kurt, you were so devout, such a good young man. Where did it all go wrong?"

Kurt's last memories, that of turmoil and rage, confusion, pain and blood, and emotional agony hit him with the force of a hurricane. His whole frame shuddered, and this time the Mare did whicker.

"Margali, z-z-zey k-keeled my mozzer," Kurt sobbed, his breath coming in sharp gasps, tears welling in his gold eyes, his body shivering like a leaf in a thunderstorm.

"Yes. Do you know why?" God asked levelly, not wanting to send little Kurt to Lucifer, but wanting to make him feel remorse for what he did.

"She v-vas s-sor-sorcer-sorceress?" Kurt couldn't even form whole sentences anymore.

"Who told the townspeople she was a sorceress, Kurt?" God pressed, leaning forward on his throne.

"D-d-donno . . ." Kurt cried, tears splashing down his front and wicking off the Mare's fur.

"Another mutant named _Magneto_ did this to you, Kurt. He did this because you escaped him, when you were just a baby. You were to be his new apprentice, a powerful little mutant once he took you from your poor mother and ran the tests. Yes, son of a shape shifter and a demon, you're very powerful." God let his words sink in.

Kurt gave an almighty gasp and dead fainted, slipping off the Mare's back and hitting the ground with a dull _thud_.

Goddess laughed coldly, throwing back her beautiful head, the pitch of her voice actually causing a thin layer of ice and frost to crackle over all the surfaces.

God and Deity looked on. Tendrils of frost, white and silver, started to curl their ways up over Kurt's spirit when Deity snapped,

"Enough!"

Goddess stopped whatever ice-spell she was weaving with her laugh and looked at Deity, taken aback. Then she raised her chin and shook her curls haughtily.

The Mare, trembling with fear of Goddess, took a step towards Kurt and snuffled him, lipping his translucent indigo hair. Goddess snapped her fingers sharply and the Mare jumped back as if hit by an electric shock.

At Goddess's snap, Kurt's eyes opened, but he didn't see anything but blackness. Then, spots of color appeared, and the shapes of the pearly animal gods and his breath started coming in gasps.

"What are we to do with him?" God asked quietly, aside to Deity. Deity's brow furrowed for a moment, Its mirror eyes on Kurt.

"He felt remorse. He is a good person at heart. Send him back to Dreamland on the Mare." Deity murmured.

From Deity's other side, Goddess heard this and stretched her arm out to pause them. Deity would have to listen to Goddess too. When the universe and the dimensions were created, Deity was the first being. Lonely, It created God and Goddess. God was the solidification of Deity's masculine half, and Goddess was the solidification of Deity's feminine half, meaning Deity was neither a man nor a woman, but something in between; completely fair and unbiased to gender.

"No. Keep him here. He can't be sent to Dreamland; look at him! He's a demon. He'd terrify the other souls; be driven to kill again. In case you two didn't see him kill that whole town, he ripped all their throats out with his _teeth_ and _bare hands_. That and I'd like to have a little fun," Goddess added malevolently. God looked over at His "sister" disdainfully and frowned.

"We'll keep him here for a little longer, to explain fully where he is and what he is; more about his past." Deity decided, putting both Its hands up so God and Goddess leaned back into their own thrones.

"Vat's going to happen to me?" Kurt asked hesitantly. Deity lowered Its hands.

"For the moment, you're staying here. We need to talk."

"About vat?"

A ripple ran through the crowd of animal gods. This soul was pressing Deity? What nerve!

"Your past. Very confusing, and now you're dead, you need to know."

Kurt looked hurt at the words "_now you're dead_," but didn't say anything.

"You are the son of a demon and a shape shifter: Azazel, Lucifer's right-hand demon, and Mystique, a mere mutant. When combined, that makes a child with great power. There was another, smart mutant named Magneto, who figured out who your father and mother were; and he took you as you were born. When you were born, though, you had a deformity: you were born with no eyes. Magneto would have killed you, but when he ran his genetic tests, just to see if they worked, those tests had the side effect of bringing out your demon genetics.

"You ended up looking like you do now. When your demon genetics came out, Magneto wanted to keep you for his own purposes. Your mother came in and snatched you, and safely got away. She was cornered on a bridge over a waterfall by a pack of wolves, and threw you over the edge to save you. She survived by shape shifting to a bird and flying away.

"Mystique spent years looking for you, and finally found you in America with the Xavier Institute. She tried to stay around as much as possible, to be there for you, but you rejected her. She went back to Germany to plead with Margali, so she would reason with you and you would accept Mystique as your mother.

"While she was there, Magneto found out she was back in Germany, and realized she could blow his cover by exposing the genetics lab with technology far beyond what even the most advanced labs had. Magneto became scared and had Mystique burned at the stake.

"He did more investigating and found out that in persuading Margali to talk to you, Mystique had told the gypsy sorceress all about your birth. Magneto, once again scared, told the townspeople of Porthensburg that a sorceress lived in their midst. He gave them an easy target, and ordered them to burn her at the stake like Mystique.

"Margali's children, Stefan and Jimaine, wrote you a letter explaining Margali had been killed, and you flew into a rage worthy of apocalypse and stopped at nothing until her killers were dead. You slaughtered the whole town.

"Upon realizing what you had done, you retreated; only to be cornered and killed by Magneto's agent, Milani." Deity finished, waiting for Kurt's response.

"Oh," squeaked Kurt. He looked on the verge of fainting again.

"You didn't need to kill those townspeople. They were only acting under Magneto's word. The people you should've killed were Magneto and Milani. Too late now, though." God spoke from Deity's right.

"Zat vas my life. Vat is here? Vat is now?" Kurt stumbled over the words, still reeling from his life story in sixty seconds.

"This is after death. Heaven, you would call it. Though right now, you're not in heaven. You're at the Moon Court. The Moon Court is where we hold court, and pass judgment on certain souls such as war criminals, murderers, sex offenders, and other such souls. You fall under the murderers category." Goddess said, a nasty grin playing on her lips. Kurt was coming to really dislike Goddess.

"Vat vill you do viz me now?" Kurt asked, looking to Deity and God.

"Send you to Dreamland on Luna Soleil," God replied shortly.

"Luna Soleil?" Kurt cocked an eyebrow.

"The Celestial Mare to you. Only gods and beings of higher power than souls can call her Luna Soleil." God's face became stormy.

"Vat does she do?"

"Luna Soleil takes the souls to Dreamland. She is Goddess's creation, and—" Goddess cut off her "brother".

"I took her from the earth hundreds of thousands years ago. She was misdelivered on the tundras of icy, ancient Siberia. Disfigured, her mother shunned her and left her, wet, tiny, and lamed out in the blizzard on the glacier. The filly's soul interested me, so I went to Earth and took her back to Dreamland. She grew into a glorious mare, but when I instilled my magic in her, she became a true celestial creature. The Celestial Mare. When I instilled my magic, she took it upon herself to start carrying the souls to Dreamland. With such a good power and kind disposition, she deserved a fitting name. Luna Soleil, or _moon sun_." Goddess explained, extending one hand, as if in greeting. Luna Soleil bobbed over to Goddess's hand, ears flattened in fear, nervous sweat darkening her neck and flanks, her long gold tail quivering. She put her velvet muzzle in Goddess's cupped hand and lipped it, her whole body shaking, sending the wavy rivulets of her tail, feathers, and mane rippling.

Goddess lifted her chin and looked down her nose at Luna Soleil, a superior smile on her lips, smug that she commanded probably the most powerful celestial creature after Deity, God, and herself. Luna Soleil lifted her muzzle from Goddess's hand and pricked her ears at Kurt, eyes bright with her liking of the half-demon soul. Goddess frowned. _Her_ mare was supposed to pay attention to _her_.

With spite Goddess raised her other hand and brought it crashing down on Luna Soleil's sensitive nose with a loud, resounding _smack!_ Luna Soleil squealed in pain, her legs buckling, the whites of her eyes showing in fear and shock. Goddess's eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared.

_Serves her right. She should know by now._ Goddess thought cruelly.

Kurt cried out in anger and shock, his fangs bared, eyes blazing, tail lashing, resembling the thing that had killed Porthensburg. No doubt people were discovering the carnage of the ghost town as the souls debated . . .

Goddess looked slightly taken aback, but frowned. Luna lay still and silent on the ground by Goddess's feet. Kurt wanted to run over to her, but he felt rooted to the spot with anger and a streak of something else – fear.

"Why didn't you stop her?" Kurt growl-shouted at God and Deity. God looked away, but Deity held Kurt's eyes.

"Luna Soleil is Goddess's. Goddess may impress her every whim on the Mare." Deity said slowly. Kurt's eyes took on a wide, crazy look. He hissed and suddenly found it in himself to drop to four legs and rush over to Luna Soleil, stroking her neck and shoulders, but not her face. She was head-shy because of Goddess. Goddess didn't want Kurt to touch her precious Mare, but Deity and God warned her to leave him be: he was unstable, and they didn't know if souls could kill Celestial beings.

_Out of all the worthless children you've sired, Azazel, I have to say this one seems to have real potential. I couldn't have done better myself._ Lucifer turned away from the bloody red fire and smiled horribly at the goat-like demon, showing broken yellow teeth.

Lucifer looked around the low cave he and the demon squatted in. Red sandstone, crumbly, dusty walls encased them, and where Azazel had hacked out niches in the walls, Lucifer had put special souls and rare herbs. There was one causeway out of the cave, a thin, rickety thing stretching over miles of vast, white-hot lava lakes up to Dreamland and the Moon Court.

"What will we do with him?" Azazel asked, gazing into the bright, hot fire, his flappy goat like ears pricking.

_Use him to finally take over that smug, smiling, hoity-toity, too-noble Deity!_ There was a pronounced note of extreme bitterness in Lucifer's half-thought half-growling voice. Lucifer would have paced back and forth in agitation if the cave wasn't so small and the roof so low. He hunched over, sitting on his cloak, mirror eyes identical to Deity staring blankly into the fire where he could still see the imprint of Kurt's snarl.

"Should I go get the souls and ready them to fight?" Azazel said eagerly, shuffling toward the causeway where he could stretch his satyr-like legs. Lucifer waved a hand over his shoulder, still staring at the fire.

Azazel practically leaped up and galloped down the causeway. He always liked fighting. Got the blood up, and who didn't like a little brutal battle to the death? Plus, Azazel had invented fighting to keep a steady stream of souls coming into Lavez—Lucifer's lair hidden deep beneath the limbo under Dreamland, somewhere tucked into the celestial seventh dimension.

There was going to be a good fight, and though the souls and gods in the Moon Court didn't know exactly, they felt it to the very tips of their toes.

**Oy vey! I am so very sorry I've been absent for so long. I bet you were wondering if I died! Ok, people, I know how many of you have signed up for story and/or author alerts. Just take a minute and write a review; I do appreciate them. They make me happy inside and make me want to write more!**

**On a different note, I won't be able to give you chapter 14: **_**Moving On**_** for a while because of the Virginia State Standards of Learning. They're long, stupid tests that are mandatory for all VA students. Euch. Because of these tests, the teachers are piling on the homework and review, so I'm incredibly busy and not able to write a lot. As soon as ch. 14's done, I promise to you, my loyal readers, I will update.**

**Love, Iris Musicia**

**PS. Tell me what you think about the summary. I really suck at summaries, so I need you guys to help me with it. If you have any suggestions, put it in your review. Thanks! **


	14. Moving On

**Disclaimer: I really just want to go *headbang* *headdesk* *headkeyboard* because I have to keep writing these stupid disclaimers over and over so Marvel doesn't think . . . whatever. You guys all know what I'm talking about.**

**A/N: 100 Silver Wings brought up an interesting point in her review: I am leading an almost entirely different story now. I am slightly unhappy with that; and I'm not sure if that's good or not, so please, feel free to tell me if you like the Kitty thread or the Celestial thread better (or both) and I'll give you more of the thread you requested.**

**A/N2: I am in ALASKA! Oh yes, I am. From VA to AK, I'm still giving you stories. I shall be posting a YouTube vid with amazing picts and a fluke video of Aialik Glacier calving. Watch out for the URL either at the end of this chap, or next chap!**

**Moving On**

Kitty sat in her room at the Xavier Institute. It was late June, a few weeks into summer vacation; two years since Kitty had kissed the ashes goodbye and set them to the world. Nobody had seen her slip a handful of Kurt's ashes into her hand, ashes she later baptized herself and her room with. There was a small corner of the room that Kitty had painted blue and concentrated the ash there; her own deeply personal shrine to Kurt's memory. Some days when she was feeling very lost or romantic she would kneel in that corner, forehead to the dark smudge on the cerulean paint, and pray to Kurt, hoping for guidance.

It was storming, typical of Jersey. Kitty was rereading _The Hunger Games_ for the millionth time; right at the part where Katniss is hiding in the tree from Peeta and the people he teamed up with. Kitty smiled and thought about if they entered the Xavier kids in the Hunger Games against the kids from all the districts.[1] A bolt of lightning forked across the sky and Kitty reached over her nightstand to pull her shutters closed. No more interruptions to her reading.

The thunder cracked and boomed, and suddenly the building shook. That was not the thunder.

Kitty sat bolt upright, _The Hunger Games_ falling from her hand onto the floor, lying open at the page where Katniss and Peeta try to kill each other. She ran to her door and wrenched it open; and down the hall, doors flew open with bangs and heads stuck out.

"_Trisket!_" Logan's voice carried a fury they had never heard before. Behind her, Kitty's shutters flew open and a cold breeze raked her back and played havoc with her hair. She ran back to her windows and closed the windows, then the shutters over top. Then she dashed back to the door to see Trisket and Rahne sprinting down the hallway as fast as their legs would carry them, Logan pounding only several feet behind, claws extended, his face a mask of rage.

"What the . . . ?" murmurs filled the hallway, the inhabitants of rooms turning to each other, asking what happened, when nobody knew.

"Lattle Caltic gerl; gonna get her ayss kicked!" That would be Rogue, announcing her presence graciously as always. She lumbered into view, absolutely covered—no, I mean _COVERED_ in black paint. There was a moment of stunned silence. Then everybody burst into hysterical laughter.

At the appearance of Jean and Scott, doused in black paint as well, the hallway was overcome by such hysterics a lot of people fell to the ground, crying and clutching their sides, screaming and howling with laughter.

"What . . . the . . . hell . . . happened?" Bobby choked out, looking at Rogue's murderous glare and falling into renewed fits of mirth.

"Trisket happened." Jean said darkly, shaking paint off her hands and hair. Scott was attempting to wipe it off his glasses with his eyes closed; but was just spreading the paint from his uniform to his shades.

Kitty couldn't help it, she burst out into raucous laughter. She wished Kurt would've been here to see this. He probably would have organized the prank. Rahne and Trisket had taken up Kurt's position as tricksters. She stopped laughing for a moment and thought quickly to Kurt,

_I'm sure wherever you are up there, you're having fun. I'm definitely having fun down here. Wish you were here._

She thought it sounded like a postcard, but it didn't matter. Somewhere from the end of the hallway, there was a sharp howl. Everybody froze. That could either be Rahne or Logan. Kitty leaned out her doorway slightly, as did everybody else, to peer down to the corner of the hall. There were a few heavy steps and a collective gasp.

Logan tottered around the corner, shoved into a floral print flapper dress and high heels, a straw sun hat jammed onto his head. He was growling murderously and muttering curses under his breath of what he would do to Rahne and Trisket when he caught them. Kitty shuddered. She wouldn't want to be either of the redheads.

Everyone stayed deathly silent as Logan stormed slowly past. As he disappeared around the other corner, murmurs and whispers ran up and down the hall until everyone was laughing and speculating how Rahne and Trisket could've stuffed Logan into the hideous outfit.

Kitty smirked and walked back into her room, closing the door and picking up _Hunger Games_. She fell asleep reading a few hours later.

_Milani raised the gun and hesitated before pulling the trigger. Then she realized she would be free after this creature was dead. She was going to shoot his head, but her aim wavered and a single round was fired into his gut. Milani smirked and turned on her heel, clicking out of the cavern and disappearing into the wreck of Porthensburg. _

_ Magneto picked her up shortly afterwards. The mercenary was paid, and let go. _

_ Kitty sat crying by Kurt's side as he exhaled his last breath. His glimmering gold eyes faded slowly and Kitty closed his eyes. _

_ She was now lying in his arms, her eyes closing slowly, the pain in her stomach fading, sinking into sweet blackness and peace._

Kitty woke up and sighed. She had had this dream many times. It was about four thirty in the morning on a Saturday. Her room was very dim with light coming through her heavy drapes.

Kitty sat up and looked around, rubbing her palms into her eyes. She glanced at her clock again. August 16. Her birthday.

_K__ä__tzchen, oh how I vant to be zere viz you._

He fell through what felt like a bubble. Tumbling wildly, he landed with a thump on Kitty's floor by the foot of her bed, completely transparent and very solid.

Kitty sat bolt upright, her face paling. Her eyes were the size of tea saucers.

_No, K__ä__tzchen, calm down!_

She slowly pushed back the covers and put one foot hesitantly on her carpet, keeping her eyes fixed on a point somewhere between the foot of her bed and the bottom of her vanity. The toes of her other foot were set softly down.

"Milani," she breathed. Her eyes stayed fixed, but were now filled with anger. Her hands curled into fists.

Kurt staggered up, not used to the feeling of gravity. How had he fallen through here? He was in Dreamland one moment, standing over the bubble, watching Kitty. Today was her sweet sixteen. Kurt was seventeen. Now their ages were more even.

"Milani you filthy—" Kitty swore a blue streak, like a well-seasoned sailor. Kurt stumbled backwards, he had never heard this part of Kitty. She leaped forward, ready to phase through Milani to disorient her. She slammed into something that felt like a wall.

_Hey, hey, little kitten, calm down, calm down! _Kurt said hastily as Kitty leaped up and swung her fist, connecting solidly with Kurt's jaw. Kurt fell to the floor again, his mind lapsing into fighting mode. He grabbed Kitty's ankle and yanked her left leg out from under her so she landed heavily on her back, winded. Kurt leaped on top of her, and Kitty used his momentum to roll back over on him.

Kurt grabbed Kitty's wrists and sat up, snapping out of fighting mode. His tail curled around Kitty's ankles and she went stiff, freezing. Kurt pulled her into his lap and cradled her there.

"Milani, you are such a lesbian! And sick! Where the hell did you get a tail so I would think you're Kurt?" Kitty screeched, struggling wildly. Kurt's ears pricked. Was that . . . ? No, it was nothing. He concentrated celestial magic to lock the door just in case.

Kurt pressed his hand her palm, letting her feel his thumb, first, and second wide fingers. He repeated this with his other hand. He stroked his forearm down Kitty's cheek, letting her feel his fur. Kurt pushed his diamond-shaped tail barb into Kitty's calf. Through this, Kitty had gone silent.

He picked up Kitty, in his arms, and set her down on her bed. He picked up her navy blue mascara – it made her eyes look gray, so she never wore it, but the only reason she had bought it was because of Kurt – and uncapped it. He took a deep breath, imagining what Kitty saw. Her floating mascara. Kurt pressed the mascara wand to the mirror, hesitating a moment. If he wrote this wrong, Deity knows what would happen.

_K__ä__tzchen, my dear kitten. I love you so much. Every day I have sat and watched you blossom, now you're absolutely stunning. I'm sorry I couldn't be here for your last two birthdays, but consider this my present to you for your sweet sixteen._

_Kurt Otto_

Kurt's breath shuddered as he recapped the mascara and set it down, surveying his elegant script on the mirror. He turned slowly and approached Kitty, summoning celestial magic to make him translucent.

"Oh Kurt," Kitty breathed, her eyes glowing as bright as Kurt's. Kurt lay down on the bed next to her on his side so he was gazing into her eyes. He placed his hand on her cheek, and she mirrored the action. Kurt leaned in, his eyes searching hers. Their lips met gently, and Kitty closed her eyes. She shivered, and Kurt laid his tail over her waist, eliciting another shiver, but of pleasure.

Her lips were so soft and delicious, Kurt wanted to go all-out, but he wouldn't. He rolled over on her, supporting his weight just over her body. Kurt closed his eyes and let Kitty take control, tilting her head and urging Kurt to do so. She started moving her lips, and her warm breath tickled Kurt's lips. He ran his tongue along her bottom lip, and she opened her mouth.

It was pure joy for Kitty, to be with Kurt in this way. She felt an uninvited tear slide down her cheek. Kurt felt the tear at the corner of his mouth and stopped kissing her. He rolled off of her and lay facing her, crystal tears falling onto the bridge of her nose, eyes squeezed shut.

_Hush, K__ä__tzchen. What's wrong? _Kurt murmured. Kitty felt his question rather than heard it.

"It's amazing seeing you again," Kitty confessed quietly, her eyes still closed, "but it's going to end. Is this a dream? I love you so much, it hurts when you go away. Don't leave me, Kurt."

_Kitten, I'm in a good place. Don't worry about me. You'll see me soon enough._

"But you'll stay with me for now?" Kitty asked softly. Kurt sat up and pulled Kitty up, holding her in his lap, letting her cry it out.

Kurt's celestial magic faded.

Kitty kept crying softly.

Kurt's hold on her faded.

Kitty kept crying softly.

Kurt slipped away, his strength to stay drained.

Kitty's tears finally waned.

_K__ä__tzchen, my kitten . . ._

She sat there for a long while, her eyelids heavy, her arms curled around her knees, the same way she had sat when Kurt had held her head under his chin in a comforting, protective way. Little whispers tugged at her attention, but she ignored them.

"Kitty?" Jean asked softly, standing in front of the door. Kitty looked up. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing," Kitty whispered, voice hoarse.

"You've got tear tracks down your face and your eyes are all red like you've been crying for hours. Did you have a nightmare?" Jean perched on the edge of Kitty's bed.

"It _was_ real," Kitty breathed.

"What was real?" Jean asked, looking at the strange sense of wonder and delight on Kitty's pale face.

"Kurt. He was here." Kitty said softly, brushing her fingers over her lips, smiling. Pain entered Jean's eyes. She reached out a consoling hand, then stopped when Kitty's mirror caught in her peripheral vision.

There was Kurt's mascara note. Jean had no doubt that it was Kurt's handwriting.

"Oh my god . . ." Jean breathed. She looked over at Kitty, still sitting quietly.

"He sat here with me for hours, talking to me." Kitty murmured, not looking up. Jean looked and she could see the imprint in the covers of a second person with a heavy tail sitting beside Kitty.

"Kitty, we need to get Professor X."

The professor, woken by Jean's telepathic messages, was sitting up in his wheelchair in his cold study, though he had stubble on his face and his eyes were bleary. Jean led Kitty into the study and took a seat. Kitty sat across the coffee table from the professor.

"Kitty," the professor yawned, "did you have another nightmare?"

Kitty shook her head. "Far from it," she answered, a smirk gracing her lips.

"Tell me what happened." The professor prompted.

"What if I don't want to?"

"I'd have to go into your memories."

"No way! I'm not letting you into my head."

"This can be easy or this can be hard, Katherine." The professor warned, shaking his finger at her. Kitty set her jaw and made her mind go perfectly blank and sterile – putting up defenses.

"This might hurt if you decide to be difficult." The professor focused his energies to Kitty, driving into her consciousness and causing her to yelp in pain, the pain shattering her barriers.

_You don't touch her!_

The professor was knocked back by an explosion of celestial magic. An image of Kurt, his tail lashing, teeth bared, his edges blurred as if with bright blue flames, the picture of rage, burned into Professor X's mind.

"Dear Lord," the professor gasped, clutching his head. He opened his eyes to see Kitty glowering at him, fresh tears in her eyes.

"Kurt won't let you harm me." She stated defiantly, before standing abruptly and stalking from the room. Jean looked after her with wide eyes, shrugged an apology, and hurried after her.

"What was that?" Jean asked sharply once she caught up to Kitty.

"Kurt protected me. He's not gone. He never will be." Kitty snapped harshly, and Jean saw a hazy, faint image of Kurt appear behind Kitty's back, step forward, and lay a hand on her shoulder. Kitty's tense stance relaxed and she turned towards Kurt, though he had disappeared. She walked back towards her room and phased through the door. Jean walked after her and saw her hand phase back through the door and hang a sign on the door handle:

NO TELEPATHS ALLOWED

Kitty turned towards her bed and ran into Kurt. She blushed and smiled, and Kurt cradled her chin in his hand.

"Now, about your birthday present . . ."

** He he he! I'll leave your imaginations up to it, since I don't write lemo—whoops! *Evil laughter* Hope y'all love it, review! I want at least FIVE, count 'em, FIVE reviews before I post Ch. 15, an' it's gonna be good.**

**[1] I hereby and henceforth call dibs on this idea! No taking! My story! (My precious!)**


	15. KickAss Kurt

**Disclaimer: Ki lach brea eth X-Men!**

**A/N: Since y'all voted for Kurtty, I've decided to postpone major plot events to give you the Kurtty you so desire. I'd better get a boat load of reviews for this!**

**Kick-Ass Kurt**

Kitty kept thinking about her birthday. That really _was_ the best present ever. Right now, though, Kitty and her friends were watching a kinda cheesy old movie called _Willow_ in the rec. room. About halfway through, she got bored and left. She wandered to her room, dragging her fingers along the wainscoting on the walls. She sighed, opening her door slowly. Ever since that super-charged morning with Kurt, normal stuff was _so_ depressing.

It had been two weeks since her birthday, and Kurt would pop up occasionally, in her mirror, sitting on her bed, or walking with her down the halls; but never for long. Most of the time he would write messages to her on her mirror, always signed "Love Kurti". She had even bought a cobalt blue eyeliner pencil just for him to write with.

The others in the mansion knew that something involving Kurt's spirit was going on with Kitty, but they never really got any proof of it. Kitty always erased Kurt's love notes before anyone walked in, and she would never talk to anybody about it. The only way they could tell Kurt was around was if Kitty looked truly happy.

Sometimes Kurt would join a fight in the Danger Room. It was always fun to see the drones suddenly drop out of the air, and hear a faint *_bamf!_* as he teleported around to hit the drones. Once or twice, Kitty would walk in with her arm at an odd angle and announce that Kurt was here, holding her hand. Sometimes she would lie, just to make herself feel better. However, once, just to humor the Half-Pint, Logan made everybody leave the floor of the Danger Room, and set the level to KD1. Kurt's hardest training level that nobody – not even Logan or Jean - could beat.

_Flashback_

Kitty marched into the Danger Room, beaming.

"Kurt's here!" Everybody looked up at her, smiled, nodded, and got back to whatever they were doing, like tightening their boots or fixing their visors. Logan leaned against the wall, in his uniform, his hood pulled down.

"Let's see if Kurt can still fight, eh Half-Pint?" he asked, joking. Kitty nodded seriously. Logan quelled his look of surprise and motioned for everybody to clear out and get up into the command station.

"Can I stay down here and fight with Kurt?" Kitty asked. Logan shook his head.

"KD1 is too dangerous for ya, Kit. Let Kurt kick its ass." Kitty nodded and headed for the elevator up to the command center.

"So, Elf, what sticks to ya?" Logan asked, looking around at what appeared to be an empty Danger Room.

_Paint, obviously. Flour sticks kvite vell, alzo. _Logan felt Kurt's reply. He nodded.

"What do you prefer?"

_Go viz paint. I zink Evan has some spray paint in a blue or zomezing. Lemme go get it._

There was a faint _bamf_, then another, and a can of spray paint appeared, floating in midair. Kurt shook it, then started spraying down his arms and legs.

Up in the command station, there was a collective gasp as Kurt took form in royal blue paint, exactly how he had been at the time of his death, minus the bullet wound. He sprayed his hair, then shook his head. The spray paint went flying out the door as Kurt chucked it away, then turned to the command station, beaming a thousand watts and holding double thumbs-up.

Back down on the floor, Logan stared dumbly for a moment, then returned Kurt's hand signal.

"KD1, Elf. Hope yer not too outta practice – but then again, what can hurtcha?" Logan smiled before disappearing into the elevator.

Kurt got in a ready position, eyes watching the walls, waiting for the electrified tentacles and hovering drones to emerge.

Up in the control station, Kitty watched calmly. The display in the console indicated electric tentacles first, laser drones next. The tentacles popped out, sparking with blue electricity. They wove across the floor and through the air, aiming for Kurt. He leaped away from them, rolling to soften the impact of the floor.

The tentacles arced after him as a red-hot laser blasted past him. A laser drone hovered behind him, laser trained on his head. The next few minutes were astounding.

Kurt flipped, kicked, punched, and karate chopped his way through eight electric tentacles, twenty laser drones, sixteen blade drones, a laser pit, and holographic projections of S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers – all while battling through a maze with five-foot-wide passageways and multiple dead ends.

"Gosh, it's like he never even died," Jean commented to Scott, who nodded.

"And he can't even get hurt doing all this." Scott said.

Kitty glowed, proud of her boyfriend – rather, her boyfriend's spirit. Life was so much easier now that Kurt visited.

_End flashback_

It was too easy for her to forget this was only his spirit she was dealing with, and when her brain beat rationality into her, she came into deep bouts of depression upon realizing he was dead all over again. Beast had given Kitty antidepressants to take when she became depressed, but she never took them, and had to be goaded, coaxed, and bullied into taking them by both Kurt and Rogue.

Kitty flounced into her room and fell face-first onto her bed. She felt a hand gently stroking her hair.

"Mm, Kurt, don't mess with me, just kiss – me?" Kitty looked up and "me" came out as a strangled squeak. It wasn't Kurt stroking her hair. No, this boy had color and a true body – and brunette hair.

"Lance, you creeper! Get out! Out! HELP! _HELP_!" Kitty shrieked, but then Lance grabbed her jaw roughly and kissed her hard to shut her up. She tried to pull away, but couldn't; her fists rained blows on Lance's face, shoulders, and head – mind you, these weren't light blows. Kitty could _punch_.

Shadowcat finally had enough sense to kick his groin, but seeing as she was halfway on her stomach, this was impossible. She flailed and screeched and made as much noise as humanly possible, but the rooms were soundproof for residents with sharper hearing.

All of a sudden, Lance was jerked away violently, and Kitty knew it was Kurt. Kurt, who had grabbed Lance's shoulders and thrown him backwards off the bed, had a foot firmly planted on Lance's chest.

_You leave her alone, you filthy, greasy, mangy sonofabitch!_ Kurt yelled at Lance. Lance tried to scramble up, but was held down by Kurt, at his mercy. Only when Kurt let him up did Lance leap up and sprint out of the room, terrified past the point of caring who saw him.

"Oh Kurt!" Kitty squeaked, fainting. Kurt caught her and propped her back up on the bed, shaking her lightly.

_Kitty, Kitty. Hey, kitten, wake up. Aufwachen!_ Kurt woke her, and Kitty clung to him tightly.

"That was terrifying! Oh my god! I just fell on my bed and I looked up and Lance—" Kitty gushed.

_I know. I saw the whole thing. I don't understand why you ever went out with him._ Kurt said. Kitty shrugged.

"I guess I felt sorry for him."

_So you feel sorry for an American boy who's hardly ever grasped the concept of flirting, but you don't feel sorry for your poor dead German boyfriend?_ Kurt teased lightly. Kitty smiled at where she assumed his face would be, and Kurt decided that, heck, he was bored, she was here, and she seemed in the mood for a good kiss.

Kurt's kisses were always soft and made Kitty shiver slightly, but never had one felt this good. Kitty pressed herself into him, wanting more and more. Kurt broke the kiss for a fraction of a second to breathe in her ear,

_You know, K__ä__tzchen, I'm not about to take your virginity from you, seeing as I'm dead and someone – namely Scott – might barge in. You know how Scott never knocks. _

Kitty moaned sadly. Apparently, that was what she wanted.

"But when else will I ever get the chance?" Kitty murmured lustily, and Kurt was almost tempted to go back on his word.

_Later, with a living boy. You never know. If you have such an obsession with blue fuzzy people, you could always go for Beast_. Kitty broke the kiss and pretended to gag.

"Seriously?"

_No, not seriously, Kitty. You know I'm messing with you._

"But really. Just one piece of clothing?" Kitty begged shamelessly. So one piece of clothing became two, and two became three, until they were down to the bare minimum, Kitty still on a rampage. It was astounding how quickly one piece became birthday suit.

Later – a lot later – when both of them lay side by side in Kitty's bed, Kitty asleep, Kurt wanted to kick himself.

_Good Lord, what did you let her do? She just gave herself to you, even though you're _dead_! What a shameless gutter-crawler you are, Kurt._ He muttered darkly to himself, until Kitty stirred, and Kurt stroked her hair lovingly.

Back in the rec. room, everyone assumed that Kitty had encountered Kurt somewhere along the line, but nobody suspected the sex. It was a good thing that Rogue had the sense to go knock before walking in, or else she could have interrupted a very loud post-coital make-out session – that would have been just _so_ far past disaster.

"Kit? Ya in here? I need my book back, ya know, _The Hunger Games_?" Rogue asked loudly, hammering on the door.

"Oh Jesus Kurt, where are my clothes?" Kitty shouted hurriedly. Rogue stared at the door in shock.

"Um, maybe I'll come back later . . ." she called through the wood before creeping away, shell-shocked.

The next day, when Kitty came down to breakfast, Rogue giving her the hairy eyeball, she announced that her life was complete. Nobody questioned her, but kept their heads down, staring at their breakfasts.

"Gosh, everyone's quiet," Kitty observed.

"So, uh, how did you _sleep_ last night?" Evan asked suggestively. Kitty slammed down her spoon and glared murderously at him.

"You know what, I slept perfectly well. Best eight hours of beauty sleep in my life." Kitty declared, still frowning at Spyke.

"Ok, ok," Evan backed out quickly.

Kitty became the talk of the mansion, but she didn't care. She had Kurt, and that was really all she wanted. Her relationship with Kurt's soul was super, until she walked into her room one day and the message on her mirror made her faint.

**Yeah, I know, crap-tacular, isn't it? I am slightly crabby, and after having to read a bunch of crap, smutty chapters (for Harry Potter) by a friend of mine, I was in no mood to write my nice, clean, trademark Kurtty. I am also ****slightly depressed**** MAJORLY DEPRESSED because I must end my beautiful story on a set date, and I don't know how I'm going to fit it all in! I have, like, three more chapters of stuff! Sigh. I guess I'll have to write overtime – but considering I've already jam-packed my week, this "final update" might very well be thoroughly impossible. *heavy sigh* I'll find a way for you, my readers. **

**Just sorry about the update. 12:32 am, Thursday, is not when I wanted (or was supposed to ) be updating. I have failed on so many levels. If I get flames, I shall not be upset. **


	16. Deception and Blood

**Disclaimer:** **I really don't own Marvel**

**A/N: I'm sitting on my porch dodging bits of rubber that my friends Makayla and Taryn and my sister Mo are flicking at each other, swatting mosquitoes landing on my screen. Taryn is attempting to rip Mo's leg off. Oh how fun.**

**Deception and Blood  
**

Kitty lay on the floor for a few moments, then came to and realized what had made her faint. She stared at the mirror for the longest time, trying to see a smile or indication of humor in Kurt's words.

_You have to come to Dreamland NOW. Use the knife I left on your dresser._

Kitty burst into tears as she realized again that Kurt was asking her to commit suicide.

"Kurt, I love you, but I can't do that," Kitty sobbed into her hands over and over. Rogue came into her room, attracted by Kitty's crying.

"Kit, whaddid Kurt do?" Rogue asked, catching Kitty's wrists and forcing the girl to look up. Kitty tear-filled blue eyes flicked to the mirror then back to Rogue's face. Rogue whirled around and took in the message.

"Kit, you _never_ have to! You won't give your lahfe for _Kurt_! Ah won't letcha!" Rogue said sharply, but Kitty shook her head.

"Kurt gave his life for me," Kitty sobbed, trying to reason.

"Ah'm gettin' the Professor. Kit, yer not gonna do this." Rogue said, dropping Kitty's wrists and running out the door.

"Kurt, please tell me this is a joke," Kitty sobbed quietly. She felt a hand on her shoulder.

_It won't hurt, I promise. Just bend your head down and hold your hair away._ Kurt's voice whispered.

Kitty choked and her tears redoubled, the meaning of her life running through her mind. Shaking, and hesitantly, she did what Kurt said. There was a flash of steel. Kitty shrieked, but never got to finish. It was all black. Then Kitty's soul started to pull away from her broken body. She saw Kurt standing over her, holding his arms open for her. Kitty stumbled into his arms, still crying.

_Don't look back, K__ä__tzchen, don't look back. _ Kurt murmured into Kitty's soul's ear, wishing there had been somebody to tell him not to look back at the horrific sight of his own dead body.

Kitty sniffled and hiccupped, looking up at Kurt, then her eyes clouded with anger.

_You killed me! You murdered me! You bastard!_ Kitty shrieked at him, pounding her fists against his chest. She had just as much strength in death as she had in life. Suddenly she fell into his arm and whispered, _How could you? [1]_

_ I know, kitten. You can hate me later. We have to go._ Kurt swept Kitty up into his arms and looked around hurriedly for an exit.

Several minutes later, Kurt and Kitty were mounted on the familiar back of Luna Soleil, galloping full pelt towards Dreamland. Kitty had hushed up, and was clinging for dear life to Kurt's waist as they ascended through the stratosphere, Kurt flattened on the mare's neck, egging her faster.

The second Luna's hooves hit the moon, she didn't slow her pace, but drove faster towards the crater, ears flattened in concentration. She leaped from the edge, barreling into the darkness, Kitty's shriek trailing behind. The mare landed and banked left, flying past trees so fast they were a blur of colors. They came out in a gorge, Luna Soleil swooping around tight corners so that Kurt and Kitty's legs were only half a foot from the ground. As swiftly as the gorge appeared, it disappeared, giving way to woodlands again with mountains in the background.

Kurt untangled his hands from the mare's mane, executing a flawless running dismount, Luna jogging to a swift stop. Kurt lifted Kitty off her back and led her into a clearing with a little house.

"Kurt, where—"

"_Leise_," Kurt cut Kitty off with a quick command to be quiet.

Kurt banged the door to the house open, Kitty following somewhat hesitantly behind. He strode into a small room and came out with a burlap bag.

"Look, Kätzchen, I don't mean to be cliché, but zere's a storm coming, and it von't be good. Azazel and Lucifer from ze Undervorld are going to attack – and vill be arriving in a very short period of time. Find some stuff to protect you in here. I'll be right back." Kurt explained quickly, already suited up in what, to all appearances, was leather armor. He banged back out the door and disappeared into the trees.

Kitty pawed through the bag, finding, as so Kurt elegantly put it, "some stuff to protect her." She really couldn't call it armor, but she couldn't call it useless either.

"Kätzchen!" Kurt shouted from outside. Kitty rushed out and saw Kurt holding the mane of a huge, ferocious-looking horse. The horse's eyes were a fiery red, but other than that and his huge stature, he was identical to Luna Soleil.

"What?" Kitty squeaked. Kurt nodded to Luna.

"You're on Luna Soleil. I'm on Feuxsoleil – just keep away from him." Kurt vaulted up onto the Celestial Stallion's back, and Kitty clambered onto Luna's broad pony back.

"Follow me!" Kurt called as he pulled Feuxsoleil around, spurring him back through the gorge. When Kitty and Kurt arrived, there was an army assembled, facing the sea. Kurt rode noiselessly to the front, and Luna Soleil followed her mate Feuxsoleil unswervingly.

"Kurt, what's going to happen?" Kitty asked quietly, following the unanimous gaze towards the glassy ocean.

"Azazel vill lead an army against us. Ve vill fight. If ve vin, Azazel's army vill be sent back to ze Undervorld. If ve lose, ve vill all be sent to ze Undervorld so Lucifer can feed on us.

"Kätzchen, I'm so sorry I had to steal you avay, but ve need as many souls as ve can get. If you're hit by anyzing the Undervorld demons have, you vill be instantly transported to ze Undervorld, filed into a cave, to vait for Lucifer to eat you.

"Please, kitten, I'm begging, don't get hit." Kurt said to her, tearing his eyes from the water to look at her, worry coloring his eyes dark.

"I won't, Kurt," Kitty murmured as she reached up and kissed him, the two locked in an embrace that lasted fleeting moments, but carried more emotion than Kitty had ever felt. Kitty pulled back and looked into Kurt's eyes, searching for a reply to her unconditional love. She found it as a crystalline tear fell from the corner of her eye.

"I love you so much, my kitten," Kurt murmured, leaning in for another kiss, but was jerked back as Feuxsoleil tossed his head, shrilling an alarm. Luna Soleil braced all four her legs, head down. Feuxsoleil was doing small rears, eyes blazing.

The glassy clarity of the ocean was shredded as ranks of souls rose eerily, silently, from the water, dressed in heavy, jagged armor. Kitty looked back, her heart hammering in her throat, the taste of bile in her mouth, as she saw the hundreds of thousands of souls behind her, on foot, wielding only shields, swords, and some pikes or bows and arrows.

Why no guns? Kitty didn't have time to wonder before the Underworld demons took a unanimous, clanking step forward. Another. _Clank_. Another. _Clank_. The rhythm was sick.

"What happens after he eats you?" Kitty asked shrilly as the demons clanked closer.

"Nozing." Kurt replied tersely.

"How do you know?" Kitty's voice broke.

"I don't."

A goat demon at the front of the army raised his sabre. The Underworld army broke into frenzied howls, charging forward, their deathly call filling the air.

Kurt screamed back, face twisted into a mask of fury as he spurred the stallion into the waves, plunging through the white caps of water.

Kitty remembered the rebel yell, and was filled with sudden, odd confidence. Shrieking like a banshee, the mare thundered into the spray, Kitty holding the sword high. The rest of the army followed.

The crash of the armies colliding was deafening. In one charge, Kitty hit three Underworld demons, who vanished instantly, but left smoky shadows behind. Luna Soleil bit and bared her teeth, rearing and bucking and jumping, lashing out at the demons that encroached on her. Kitty swung her heavy sword, lopping off a demon's head and a several-inch chunk of Luna's mane.

Salt water splashed up into her face, stinging her eyes, burning her throat, but she kept going, turning more demons to shadows. Kitty cried out as an arrow hit her right shoulder with a dull _thunk_. The leather armor had helped, but the Underworld arrow was in her flesh.

"NO!" Kitty shrieked, viciously slashing at the hordes of demons. More arrows rained down on her, hitting her shield, but many hit her and Luna's back. They burned like fire, but she spurred Luna Soleil straight into the demons, stabbing and slashing, cutting a path of shadows behind her. Luna Soleil screamed as an arrow pierced her thigh.

"_K__Ä__TZCHEN! NEIN!_"

It was all black. It wasn't cold, but it wasn't hot either. Kitty could feel ground beneath her, and hear Luna Soleil's labored breathing to her left. She staggered up, only to find herself back on the ground. Her sense of balance had deserted her. Kitty remembered the arrow and tugged on it experimentally, earning sharp stabs of pain. She inched over to Luna, who was lying on her side panting, and felt along her neck and back, silently counting arrows. Twelve on the pony mare's back, three in her legs. She also felt hot, sticky blood; something she hadn't felt on her shoulder.

"Shh, Luna, it'll be okay." Kitty said, finding the mare's head and stroking her cheek gently. Vaguely, she heard moans from behind her, but they were far away and none of her concern. Luna's panting slowed to deep, rattling breaths. There was a heavy thump, another soul for Lucifer arriving.

"Oh God, what have I gotten myself into? This isn't a dream I'll wake up from, and I won't die. I'll just be nothing. Oh my God," Kitty moaned hopelessly, her fingers absentmindedly braiding Luna Soleil's gold mane.

Meanwhile, Kurt, on Feuxsoleil, was still fighting the Underworld demons in the ocean. He swung his sword in a broad arc and mowed down several demons. There was a loud snarl from behind him. Kurt wheeled Feuxsoleil around to face Azazel, armed with two broadswords.

"Hello, Fazzer." Kurt growled.

"Hello, Son." Azazel growled in reply, leaping forward with another cry. Their outstretched swords met, one of Azazel's plunging into Feuxsoleil's neck, the other into Kurt's chest, as Kurt's sword hit Azazel in the head. All three disintegrated to smoky shadows.

"_Verdammt_!" Kurt growled as he appeared in the darkness of the cave, next to his dying Feuxsoleil.

"Kurt?" Kitty's voice was just in front of him.

"Kätzchen! I vas looking for you, I knew you vere here. Oh God ve're really in deep _scheisse_ now, eh?" Kurt said hurriedly, reaching over Feuxsoleil and touching Luna Soleil's tail.

"Kurt, where are you?" Kitty asked.

"Right behind you, just don't turn around too qvick. The stallion's right here. How's Luna Soleil?" Kurt asked, worried.

"She's got fifteen arrows, I've got one, thanks for asking." Kitty answered, slightly peeved.

"Sorry," Kurt apologized. "C'mere."

Kitty felt around, and found Feuxsoleil's hoof, and felt up his leg to his back, then her hands found Kurt's knees.

"Oh God, Kurt, what's going to happen?" Kitty cried, tears leaking from her eyes in the dark.

"I'm sorry, Kätzchen, but I don't know." Kurt cradled Kitty on his lap, and they sat silently, listening to the breath of their two horses. Kitty's neck started hurting. Not because Kurt was holding her head gently against his chest, but it was more like somebody had sliced her neck. _Damn_, it burned.

"Kurt, my neck hurts." Kitty said, barely feeling Kurt holding her. There was no response. She couldn't hear the horses.

"Kurt? Kurt! _Kurt!_" she cried over and over, until she felt weight pinning down her thrashing arms and legs.

"Kitty, stop! You're hurting yourself!" was that the Professor?

"No! _Where am I_?" Kitty screeched, opening her eyes. "I want Kurt!"

"Kit, Kurt's dead. You know that." Rogue said, pinning down her ankles.

"NO! I was just with him! The horses! We need to save him, we need to save them, _help me! Let me GO!_" Kitty screamed, freeing her legs and kicking Rogue squarely in the chest.

"Damn!"

"Kitty!"

"_NO!_"

There was a struggle, and Kitty won out over Evan and Scott, adrenaline lending her desperation. She felt blood on both sides of her neck.

"What did you do? You killed me! No, I'm dead- you resurrected me! I'll kill you all, and you'll go straight to _Lucifer! You'll all be eaten! You took me from Kurt! He needs my help!_" Kitty shrieked, hysterical.

"Give her the sedative," the Professor murmured to Beast.

"No! No sedative! I need death! I'll kill myself with that needle!" Kitty lunged for the needle in Dr. McCoy's hands.

"Hold her down!" Beast commanded. Kitty was restrained, screeching like a banshee, and given the sedative. Her arms and legs trapped, Kitty hit her head against the table repeatedly until Logan had to hold her head down. She screamed in frustration.

"Kitty! Be rational! Rogue found you in your room – you had cut your neck badly in a botched suicide! _Katherine Pryde!_ You listen to me _now_! You will not kill yourself, understand? You have been unconscious due to blood loss for two minutes, if you lose any more blood, you may die. You're in the medical wing. Calm down!" the Professor shouted. Kitty started screaming again.

"Kill me, kill me," Kitty sobbed suddenly, tears streaking from the corners of her eyes into her hair as she mewled pathetically. "Just kill me, please . . ."

PHANTOM & FELINE

"No, Kätzchen, where did you go?" Kurt moaned. Kitty had faded out of his arms like nothing.

"Deity, vat happened? Vere did my Kätzchen go?" Kurt shouted to the cave above him. His voice bounced back, mocking him. "Please, may the Lord forgive me! I _need_ my Kätzchen, you don't understand!"

Suddenly, Luna Soleil jerked rapidly. Kurt crawled over to see what was wrong. The fifteen arrows Kitty had described were gone. She lifted her head and snuffled Kurt's arm. Behind him, Feuxsoleil snorted in sudden pain. Kurt's hands flew to the stallion, feeling his neck. No trace of Azazel's sword. Speaking of swords, the wound in his chest was gone.

_Yes, Kurt, you have been forgiven. Touch both the horses and come home_. It was God's voice.

Kurt breathed a shaky sigh of relief, putting a hand on the horse's backs. The world became blinding white and hot, then cooled and became black again, but he was back in the Moon Court, facing only God.

_You have shown love and remorse, caring and kindness. The marks of a good person. You died so young, and we have decided you will get another chance at life. Make it a good one, Kurt._ God smiled down at him, and reached out a massive hand. He grasped the tip of Kurt's tail, and white-hot pain seared up his tail and through his body.

_I'm going back_.

**So yeah, Kurt's being resurrected! Like I said (somewhere to someone), no character ever stays dead in my stories. I'm happy right now, I'm finally semi-caught up, I just have to find a title for my next story, temporary title: **_**Nightcrawler's Chesapeake Girl**_**. If you have any good suggestions, please tell me! Don't forget to review! ;D**

**Oh, and, [1] Taryn said I should put that in there. She saw it in a movie. ;)  
**


	17. All's Quiet

**Disclaimer: I honestly despise disclaimers.**

**A/N: this is the last chapter! Oh, it's bittersweet . . . **

**A/N2: I know I've been railing on about Spot, but it is almost like losing a good friend. I have a tribute up on YouTube at **http:/www. youtube. com/watch?v =QTMO3nfKeb8** just take the space out. Watch it if you want, I'm not forcing you to do anything. Just know I cared.**

**P&F**

**All's Quiet**

_"And so the lion fell in love with the lamb,"_ Kitty read aloud from _Twilight_. She and Jean sat on the front lawn in the shade of an overhanging tree. Since Kitty's three attempted suicides to get back to Kurt, she had to have someone with her at all times.

"That's my favorite chapter," Jean commented, leaning back on her elbows in the grass. Kitty nodded. She didn't say much. Having a babysitter all the time, especially when it was Scott or Logan, was really awkward.

"It's hot." Kitty said, glancing at the white-hot sun overhead through the leaves.

"You want to go inside?" Jean asked, starting to get up. Kitty shook her head. Jean settled back down.

A sudden breeze blew Kitty's hair in wild curls around her face. She looked up from _Twilight_, snapping the book shut. Jean's hair was completely still. In fact, Jean was completely still. She wasn't even blinking, just frozen. Kitty waved her hand in front of Jean's face, but nothing happened. The leaves overhead rattled in the almost gale-force winds, and Kitty's hair whipped her cheeks, but there were no clouds indicative of a storm blowing in.

Kitty walked out from under the tree, glancing at the sun again. Her eyes picked up small movements, tiny particles of dust. They were all flying towards one spot. Directly in front of the sun. More and more ash flew overhead until there was a swirling black mass over the sun. In a brilliant flash of blinding light, the sun shot through, and Kitty flinched from the brightness. Shielding her eyes, crouched near the grass, Kitty heard light footsteps padding towards her. She squinted at the feet.

"_KURTI!_" Kitty screamed in joy, leaping up and bounding over to him. Kurt wrapped her in a bone-crushing hug and spun her around. The wind whipped their hair around, but Kitty had already stolen Kurt's lips into a passionate kiss, never to be broken, even as the wind died to a breeze and Jean leaped up with a cry of shock.

"Ohmygodkurt!" Jean yelled, her voice cracking two octaves higher. A quick telepathic message sent everyone scrambling outside, where they saw a beaming couple of Kurt and Kitty locked in a tight hug, with Jean crying tears of joy on the side. The second Kitty let go, Jean and Rogue jumped on him, hugging him until he choked. Everyone else swarmed him and hugged him, asking him, "How the hell?"

"Kurt. It is a miracle to have you back. How . . . ?" the Professor asked, sitting in his chair back a little ways from the small crowd.

"To make a very long story very short, God gave me a second chance at life," Kurt grinned. Scott, ever the atheist, shook his head in disbelief. Kurt turned to him. "You doubt my religion? You look at zis!"

Kurt grasped the tip of his tail and showed the triangular barb to Scott. The eye of God was branded clearly into the fur and skin. Scott half stepped back.

"Man, that's some pretty funky stuff, then." Scott grinned and slapped Kurt on the back.

"It's really good to be home!" Kurt said. Everyone laughed as they started to move inside.

P&F

After Kurt had shared his recount of Dreamland and the Celestial battle – which the Dreamland force won – he slipped away with Kitty to a little-used hallway.

"I thought I'd never see you again," Kitty murmured into his neck.

"Same here," Kurt replied softly, wiping away a tear sliding down Kitty's cheek with his tail.

"I missed you so much," Kitty sobbed. Kurt quieted her with a finger to her lips.

"No need to talk." He murmured, capturing her salty lips in a sweet, gentle kiss. Kitty closed her eyes in euphoria, finally alive and breathing with her soul mate, in pure alone time. She hooked her arms around his neck, and he put his hands on her hips, his touch sending zings of electricity through her body.

Kitty broke the kiss, and Kurt started to kiss the line of her jaw, down her neck to her collarbone, where she shivered.

"Are—" Kitty started.

"Ze horses are fine, zey healed," Kurt said with a smile. Kitty frowned at him and pouted when he stopped his ministrations.

"That's not what I was going to ask," Kitty said in a low voice, but still pointedly.

"Are you free tonight?" Kitty asked, a sly tone to her voice.

"I'll alvays be free for you, Kätzchen. Just no nudity – PG13 until you're at least eighteen." Kurt whispered into her ear, smiling at her pout of disappointment. He picked her up and carried her down the hall, Kitty's squeal of happiness and surprise making Kurt chuckle.

Kurt bent his head to whisper softly before stealing Kitty's lips in another kiss.

"All's qviet on ze home front."

*PHANTOM AND FELINE*

*IRIS MUSICIA*

*A SUPERNATURAL KURTTY ROMANCE*

**Thank you everybody for reading, reviewing, and loving this story! I love you guys so much, you're all my best friends! I hope this story will be enjoyed for years to come, and shared through all different people, and maybe even convert a few Lancitty supporters! ;) The absolute last vid I'd like you all to see: a personal thank you to the community before I leave for my hiatus: **http:/www. youtube. com/watch?v =rQ6NyiSudKs&feature=channel

**I hope you enjoyed the Phantom and Feline saga as much as I did!**

**Love,**

**Iris Musicia**


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